WASHINGTON: Front­runner Hillary Clinton has extended her lead over fellow White House hopeful Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic nomination race, while her leading Republican rival Donald Trump has done the same, polls showed on Tuesday.

Clinton impressed in her party’s first televised debate last week in Las Vegas, while Trump keeps rising as the billionaire real estate tycoon taps into nationwide anti-Washington sentiment.

Vice President Joe Biden, the centre of feverish speculation over his possible entry in the fight to be the next US commander in chief, sits third in a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll on the Democratic race.

But it is Clinton who is firmly in the lead, 20 points ahead of Sanders, with Clinton getting the backing of 49 per cent of respondents, up from 42pc last month.

Support for Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont and the only genuine challenger to ex-secretary of state Clinton, is down from 35pc to 29pc.

The poll offers scant encouragement for Biden, with support marginally down at 15pc. The survey, which included 400 people who said they would vote in a Democratic primary, was conducted October 15-18.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2015

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