A new NBC News Wall Street Journal poll released on Sunday has shaken up the race for the Democratic nomination for president.
New polling released in Iowa and New Hampshire show Bernie Sanders running much stronger against Jeb Bush, Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina, indicating that Bernie Sanders is more electable than Hillary Clinton in the key states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
In the state of Iowa, the bluest purple state in presidential politics, the bottom has dropped out of Clinton's electability argument, losing to Jeb Bush, Donald Trump, and Carly Fiorina:
In Iowa, Republican Jeb Bush leads Clinton by 10 points in a hypothetical general-election match up among registered voters, 50 percent to 40 percent, and Donald Trump is ahead of her by seven points, 48 percent to 41 percent - essentially unchanged from the poll's results a month ago.
And Carly Fiorina leads Clinton in the Hawkeye State by 14 points, 52 percent to 38 percent.
But when Sanders is matched up against these same Republicans, his numbers are stronger: Sanders leads Trump by five points in Iowa (48 percent to 43 percent). And he narrowly trails Bush (46 percent to 44 percent) and Fiorina (45 percent to 42 percent).
The same dynamic in Iowa is also playing out in the blue state of New Hampshire, carried by every Democratic presidential nominee since 1992, except for the 2000 election:
Clinton leads Trump in the Granite State (48 percent to 45 percent), but she's behind Bush (49 percent to 42 percent) and Fiorina (50 percent to 42 percent).
Yet Sanders has the advantage against both Trump (52 percent to 42 percent) and Fiorina (47 percent to 45 percent), and he's tied against Bush in New Hampshire (46 percent to 46 percent).
The timing of these polls couldn't be worse for the Clinton campaign.
Fundraising numbers released last week showed the Sanders campaign raised 26 million dollars from mainly small donors and who can keep the Sanders campaign stoked with $$$ all the way to the national convention next summer. And as big donors for Clinton max out, Clinton's campaign does not have the small donor base to keep her campaign afloat, so Clinton spends more and more time traveling across the country seeking more, large donors, limiting the amount of time Clinton has to actually campaign.
And this past weekend, the campaign hit a fever pitch across the state of Massachusetts, with drawing loud, raucous crowds in Springfield (over 6,000 people) and Boston (20,000 with another 6,00 who couldn't get in), eclipsing the record of 10,000 set by Barack Obama in 2008, seeing a new records for turnout in a presidential primary in modern history.
The bottom is dropping out of Clinton's numbers in key 2016 states of Iowa and New Hampshire and it is a clear indication that a Clinton candidacy may not be able to hold the Democratic coalition together that swept presidential races in 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2012. And as the Bernie Sanders campaign continues to surge across the country, Sanders supporters can now make the argument that in fact, a Sanders candidacy is now the key to electoral success in 2016.
Bernie's authenticity on the campaign trail has made one thing very clear - voters trust Bernie Sanders. They know he says what he means and means what he says. And that is the foundation of his campaign that will carry him victory.
GO BERNIE!!