2016 US Presidential Election - Democrat Hillary Clinton slides behind Sanders in national poll

Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton’s popularity appears to be dropping nationally while her primary rival Bernie Sanders gained a slight lead for the first time, according to a latest national poll.

Bernie Sanders(74)now has support of 47 % of Democratic primary voters as against 44 % people who back Hillary Clinton.

A month ago, Hillary Clinton(68)had support of 49 % of the Democratic primary voters.

And last summer, Hillary Clinton had a lead of 46 points and that of 22 points as recently as two months ago.

This is the first time that Bernie Sanders is leading a national poll against Clinton, who not long ago was regularly described as the “presumptive” Democratic nominee, according to the poll released by Fox news ahead of the South Carolina primary on February 27.

“One thing that is clear from our poll — and others — is that Clinton has been losing support and Sanders has been gaining. And this process appears to have accelerated since the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire,” said Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.

“Historically, lesser-known candidates beating establishment candidates in early contests have seen the biggest boost in their national support,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who jointly conducted the Fox news poll with Anderson.