Increasingly Close Fight in California Heading Into State's Democratic Primary
— -- Donald Trump no longer needs California to secure his party's presidential nomination, but Democrats Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders are battling it out there in an increasingly tight race.
A new poll in California has Clinton leading Sanders by just 2 percentage points, with 46 percent to his 44 percent, which is within the margin of error.
The poll, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California and released Wednesday, shows that the race has grown far closer since its most recent poll, released March 24, which had Clinton with a 7-point lead.
The win itself will be a big morale and possible fundraising boost for the winner, but it won't make a significant difference in terms of their delegate take-home numbers.
The state's total 475 Democratic delegates are allocated proportionally, so both candidates can expect a triple-digit delegate boost after the June 7 primary.
A closer look at the numbers shows that voters 45 years old and up are more likely to support Clinton, with 59 percent leaning her way, and younger voters are more likely to favor Sanders, according to the Public Policy Institute of California poll.
The support is split by gender as well, with 46 percent of men favoring Sanders over Clinton and 49 percent of women favoring Clinton over Sanders.
The poll was released the same day that the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) publicly released a state-wide report showing that there are more than 3.9 million Hispanic voters in California.
That number represents a 22 percent increase of Latino voters in the state since the 2012 election, when there were 3,157,000 who voted.
The group reports that Hispanic voters account for one in four voters in the state, and one-third of all Democratic voters.
Such Democratic support appears to be helping. Clinton comes out ahead in a presidential matchup between Clinton and Trump, with 49 percent for Clinton and 39 percent for Trump, according to the poll released Wednesday. There were 11 percent of likely voters who said they would vote for someone else or were undecided.
Both Clinton and Sanders have events scheduled in California today, but Trump, who was in Anaheim Wednesday, has since moved on to North Dakota and Montana, which also have their Democratic primaries June 7.
