Bernie Sanders now has a dramatic lead in New Hampshire, new poll shows

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is seeing double — his support in New Hampshire, that is.

Between a WBUR poll taken in Dec. 2019 and one taken this month, Sanders nearly doubled his support in the early primary state from 15 percent to 29 percent. And while he was previously behind both former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders now has a solid lead over their 17 and 14 percent, respectively.

New Hampshire was also a stronghold in the 2016 campaign for Sanders, where he ended up with 15 delegates to Hillary Clinton's 9. Still, more candidates this time likely will translate into a more split vote.

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It's important to note this poll isn't approved by the DNC, so its results don't count toward qualifying for the next Democratic debate. Both Andrew Yang and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) earned five percent in this poll, which would've given them a step toward qualifying.

WBUR and the MassInc Polling group surveyed 426 likely voters via landline and cell phone from Jan. 17–21 with a margin of error of 4.8 percentage points.