NBC's new post-debate poll carries the blaring lede:
"NBC Online Poll: Clinton Wins Debate, Re-energizes Core Backers." And indeed, it found a majority of Democrats thought Hillary won the debate and that she held a steady 14 point overall lead.
But below the headline there was a major shift in narrative.
A typical July poll found Hillary leading Bernie 73-3 among Hispanics. With findings like that, it's not surprising the media churned out story after story trumpeting Hillary's lock on America's Hispanic voters.
But according to this new NBC poll, that 70-point lead has now shrunk to 42-35, and with a 7.7% margin of error, this means Bernie and Hillary are in a current statistical tie among Hispanics.
Of course Nevada, where 30% of the population is Hispanic, is the third voting state:
February 1, 2016 Iowa
February 9, 2016 New Hampshire
February 20, 2016 Nevada
February 27, 2016 South Carolina
Hispanics also make up
38% of the population in the delegate-rich, Super Tuesday state of Texas, which Hillary won thanks to
carrying Hispanics 66-32 in 2008, breathing fresh life into her faltering campaign.
Conventional wisdom this year was that people of color would be a firewall for Hillary. We have heard time and again that Bernie can't win over people of color because as a Vermonter he can't appeal beyond similarly "lily white" states. At least for Hispanics, that narrative appears to be crumbling.