Hillary Clinton holds a nine-point national lead over Bernie Sanders ahead of Tuesday’s primaries in Mississippi and Michigan, according to results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Clinton gets the support of 53 percent of Democratic primary voters, while Sanders gets 44 percent.
Clinton’s lead is down slightly from her 53-percent-to-42 percent advantage in last month’s NBC/WSJ poll, though the change is well within the survey’s margin of error.
In the current poll, Clinton has the edge over Sanders among those 50 and older (65 percent to 32 percent), non-whites (63 percent to 34 percent), women (61 percent to 37 percent) and self-identified Democrats (60 percent to 38 percent). Clinton also is ahead of Sanders among women 50 and older by a whopping 73 percent-to-25 percent margin.
Sanders, meanwhile, leads Clinton among independents (59 percent to 35 percent), liberals (56 percent to 42 percent) and those younger than 50 (60 percent to 38 percent). He also is ahead among women ages 18 to 49 by a 54 percent-to-44 percent margin.
The Democratic results of the NBC/WSJ poll -- conducted March 3-6 -- differ somewhat from the online NBC|SurveyMonkey tracking poll, which showed Clinton expanding her lead from 10 points to 17. The NBC|SurveyMonkey poll was conducted Feb. 29 to March 6.
The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted – by landline and cell phone – among 1,200 overall registered voters (which has a margin of error of plus-minus 2.8 percentage points) and 410 Democratic primary voters (plus-minus 4.8 percentage points). The Republican horserace numbers will be released at 5:00 pm ET.
