West Virginia Election Polls 2016: Bernie Sanders Leads Hillary Clinton Ahead Of Democratic Primary Vote

Ahead of the presidential primary Tuesday in West Virginia, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leads Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the polls there. The latest survey by MetroNews found Sanders holding a four-point lead over Clinton.

Repass Research and Strategic Consulting conducted the poll between April 22 and May 2 for MetroNews, a radio network in the state. Sanders garnered 47 percent of likely Democratic voters in West Virginia to Clinton's 43 percent. Eleven percent were undecided.

Clinton leads Sanders in the delegate race 1,701 to 1,411 and is generally expected to be the party's nominee in the general election. She needs to take just 17 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, according to CBS News. There will be 37 delegates up for grabs in the West Virginia Democratic primary.

Sanders edged out Clinton in the poll largely by attracting the youth vote. "The key, of course, for Sanders is a high turnout with young voters, while Clinton’s support is generally older, those with a college degree or post-graduate degree and upper-income Democrats," Rex Repass, CEO of Repass Research and director of the MetroNews West Virginia poll, said in part.

According to the poll, 57 percent of likely Republican voters in West Virginia said they supported presumptive nominee Donald Trump, while 25 percent said they supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The vote Republican Tuesday holds little meaning, since both Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich have dropped out of the race. The poll was conducted before Cruz and Kasich suspended their campaigns and made Trump the presumptive nominee. The poll had a sample size of 315 for Democrats and 228 for Republicans, with a margin of error of four percentage points. The GOP will also carry out a largely meaningless vote in Nebraska Tuesday.

A separate recent West Virginia poll found a wider margin for Sanders. Public Policy Polling found Sanders led Clinton 45 percent to 37 percent, in a poll that surveyed 1,201 West Virginia voters, including 637 likely Democratic primary voters, between April 29 and May 1. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Sanders ahead by six percentage points.