Poll: Majority of Democrats Want Sanders to Stay in Until Convention

After Hillary Clinton's significant primary wins last week in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut, the Democratic front-runner is now up 14 points nationally over Bernie Sanders — the widest margin of support since early March. As the campaign moves into the final month of contests this week, Clinton's campaign is slowly shifting focus away from beating Sanders to beating the Republican nominee in the general election in November.

Though the Clinton campaign and many in the party elite may be ready for a Sanders exit, a majority of Democrats and Democratic-leaners would like to see Sanders stay in the race through the Democratic convention in July. These results are according to the latest from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking Poll conducted online from April 25 through May 1 of 14,640 adults including 12,462 registered voters.

The question for Clinton becomes whether she will be able to effectively win over Sanders' supporters in the coming months. This will largely depend on when — or if — Sanders decides to leave the primary race. While it's highly improbable that Sanders can catch up to Clinton's delegate lead, he is hoping to win a majority of pledged delegates and to persuade more superdelegates in the coming weeks as a last ditch effort to keep the race competitive.

A 57 percent majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters agree that Sanders should stay in the race through the convention in July. A quarter think he should drop out in June if he still running behind after the final primary contest, and only 16 percent think he should drop out of the race now.



http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/poll-majority-democrats-want-sanders-stay-until-convention-n566146