 "Hillary Clinton, left, speaks while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., listens during the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. (Photo: AP/PTI)")
Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton is clinging to a narrow two-point lead over rival Bernie Sanders in California ahead of the state's June 7 primary, a new poll showed.
According to results from the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, Clinton gets support from 49% of likely Democratic primary voters in the state, while Sanders gets 47%.
However, among a wider electorate of all potential Democratic voters in California, Sanders is actually ahead by one point, 48% to 47%, NBC News reported.
Clinton leads Sanders among likely voters ages 45 and older (63% to 33%), self-identified Democrats (57% to 40%), women (54% to 41%), past Democratic primary voters (53% to 42%) and 'whites' (51% to 46%), the poll showed.
Clinton also is ahead among those who have already voted, 58% to 41%.
Meanwhile, Sanders leads among first-time participants (72% to 28%), independents (68% to 26%), those younger than 45 (66% to 30%), men (54% to 43%) and Latinos (49% to 46%).
Geographically, Clinton is ahead in the Bay Area (56% to 42%) and Los Angeles County (54% to 40%), while Sanders has the advantage in the inland/valley areas (54% to 44%) and the coastal region (58% to 36%).
According to the poll, Clinton and Sanders running even in California will not affect the overall delegate math in the Democratic race, where Clinton leads Sanders by some 270 pledged delegates and 770 overall delegates. A tied race would essentially split the state's 475 pledged delegates right down the middle under the Democrats' proportional allocation system.
But a Sanders victory in California -- even by a small margin -- could potentially give him justification to remain in the race heading into July's Democratic convention in July, despite trailing in the delegate math, the poll said.
"Obviously, if we don't do well in California, it will make our path much, much harder. No question about it," Sanders said last week.
"But I think we have a good chance to win in California, maybe win big, and maybe win four or five of the other states (New Jersey, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota) on June 7," the Vermont senator added.
The poll was conducted from May 29-31 of 557 likely Democrat primary voters (which has a margin of error of plus-minus 4.2% points), 991 potential Democrat primary voters (plus-minus 3.1% points) and 1,833 registered voters (plus-minus 2.3% points).
