Sanders Campaign Press Release - Sanders is Most Electable Democratic Candidate for President

TOLEDO, Iowa – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on Tuesday that Democratic Party caucus goers should consider "electability." She's right. Now there is more evidence that Bernie Sanders is the most electable Democrat running for the White House.

Sanders outpolled Clinton in head-to-head matchups against the leading Republican candidates in a new poll release on Friday of voters in the battleground general election state of New Hampshire.

"Sanders does an average of nine points better than Clinton in the general election match ups," according to the North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling.

Sanders does best against the candidates who are most popular among Republicans. He is favored by 20 points over both Donald Trump (54 percent to 34 percent) and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by 20 points (55 percent to 35 percent.)

Sanders leads the entire Republican Party field by double digits. He holds a 12-point edge over former Gov. Jeb Bush; leads U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio by 14 points and he has a 19-point advantage over Dr. Ben Carson.

Sanders is the only candidate with a positive favorability rating among the overall electorate in New Hampshire "and it's a very positive rating," according to a news release from Dean Debnam, the polling firm president. Fifty-five percent of New Hampshire voters see Sanders positively while only 35 percent have a negative opinion of the senator.

The results fit a pattern in other recent polls. Sanders outperformed Trump 51 percent to 38 percent in a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

"Sanders is the candidate best positioned to lead the party to victory in November," said Sanders' pollster Ben Tulchin. "A series of polls conducted in mid-December – notably the Quinnipiac University poll, the CNN/ORC International poll, and The Economist/YouGov poll – find Sanders has the most positive reputation of any presidential candidate from either party and is significantly better positioned with independent voters than is Hillary Clinton."