Hillary Clinton's lead in the Democratic race for the nomination has only grown wider with the numbers suggesting that the former secretary of state is the only candidate who benefited from first Democratic Debate last week, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday shows.
The results show:
- Clinton gets the backing of 49 percent of respondents, up from 42 percent last month
- Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders get 29 percent backing, down from 35 percent last month.
- Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to announce a White House run, took in just 15 percent, down from 17 percent last month.
If Vice President Joe Biden decides not to run for president, Clinton's lead over Sanders would grow to 58 percent to 33 percent, 10 points wider than last month's poll in the same question.
On whether Biden should run for president, the poll shows:
- 38 percent would prefer that Biden not run
- 30 percent want to see Biden run.
- 31 percent had no opinion one way or the other.
Clinton also led Biden among non-white voters, 50 percent to 25 percent. However, despite Clinton's strong performance in the polls,
NBC notes that she faces another major test on Thursday, when she will appear for testimony before the House Committee investigating the Benghazi attacks.
The poll was conducted Oct. 15-18, surveying 400 voters who said they were likely to vote in the Democratic primary.
The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
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