By ,
Published January 02, 2017
In a shocking new poll, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has pulled ahead of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the crucial early voting state of New Hampshire.
Sanders now leads the former secretary of state by a 44 to 37 percent margin, according to a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll – a major shift in numbers from a previous FPU/Herald poll taken in March that showed Sanders trailing Clinton 44 to 8.
Sanders' lead is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points. The poll was conducted from Aug. 7 to 10, with 442 perspective Granite State voters interviewed on the telephone.
The FPU/Boston Herald poll is the first to show the self-described "democratic socialist" senator ahead of Clinton in any state and comes on the heels of reports that the former First Lady will turn over her controversial, private email server that she used while she was secretary of state to Justice Department officials.
Federal investigators have begun looking into the security of Clintons' email setup amid concerns from the inspector general for the intelligence community that classified information may have remained on her personal server. There is no evidence she used encryption to prevent prying eyes from accessing her emails or server.
"It's about time," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement after the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination announced she was directing that the server be turned over. "Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed no classified information were patently untrue. Her mishandling of classified information must be fully investigated."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said, "All this means is that Hillary Clinton, in the face of FBI scrutiny, has decided she has run out of options. She knows she did something wrong and has run out of ways to cover it up."
For months Clinton resisted calls to give up the personal server she used in her suburban New York City home to send and store email in a private, non-governmental account. She has defended using it, saying it was a matter of convenience to limit the number of electronic devices she needed to carry and that the server never held classified information.
Coming in third in the FPU/Boston Herald poll was Vice President Joe Biden, who pulled in 9 percent. Biden, however, has yet to declare that he's seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
Despite the new poll, Clinton maintains a dominant lead in other national polls, although losing the first primary in New Hampshire would be an embarrassment and could lead to a tougher-than-expected fight for the nomination.
During her 2008 bid for the presidency, Clinton, then as now considered the frontrunner, was able to pull out a narrow win in the New Hampshire primary after having lost the Iowa Caucus to then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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