Sanders eats into Hillary Clinton’s national lead

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has erased former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s substantial lead for the Democratic presidential nomination since the start of year, putting the two in a dead heat nationally, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Ms Clinton leads Mr Sanders 48 per cent to 45 per cent among Democratic voters, according to the poll of 512 Americans, conducted between February 2 and February 5, following the Iowa caucus. The poll has a credibility interval of five percentage points.

Democrats had been supporting Ms Clinton by more than a two-to-one margin at the beginning of 2016. Mr Sanders has narrowed that lead considerably over the past several weeks.

Ms Clinton beat Mr Sanders narrowly in the Iowa caucuses, the nation’s first nomination contest ahead of the November election, but is expected to lose to him in New Hampshire. The two rivals clashed on Thursday night in their first one-on-one debate, reflecting how tight the race is.

There is still a wide gap between the two in name recognition nationally.

Nearly a quarter of Democrats and two-fifths of independents say they are still not that familiar with Senator Sanders. Ms Clinton has almost total name recognition among voters.