Tuesday 16 February 2016 9:29 am

US Presidential Election 2016: Sanders is repeating Corbyn’s success by attracting “young idealists and working class left-wingers”

Senator Bernie Sanders is closing in on his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton in the US presidential candidate nominations, propelled by a new coalition of young idealists and working class left-wingers – the same people who propelled Jeremy Corbyn to victory, according to new research.

Research by YouGov has found the demographic which carried Corbyn to leader of the Labour party is being replicated in the Democrat nomination battle in the US.

"The young cool kids are once again overwhelmingly choosing the not-Hillary option, in the unlikely form of the 73 year old Sanders, but what's new is that he is picking up the white working class as well," YouGov said, referencing how Obama won the support of younger voters back in 2008.

That means the Hillary camp is relying on older people, richer people and minority voters. Whether or not this will turn out to be enough to win the nomination is the big question of the forthcoming campaign, Freddie Sayers, editor-in-chief of YouGov, wrote.

And the similarities between Sanders and Corbyn are stark: "Two grumpy old socialists from the sidelines of politics who have been saying the same thing since the 1980s have suddenly found that, like the decade itself, they’ve come back into fashion. To their own surprise they find themselves being idolised as the standard bearers of a new leftist movement," Sayers added.

Like Corbyn, Sanders is being supported by a mixture of the young, but also the poor and angry.

However, Clinton is likely to capture the black and Hispanic vote in America, which have been less susceptible to Sanders' message. These voters are now kep to Clinton's victory, and are a group who supported her rival back in 2008.

The analysis comes ahead of the South Carolina and Nevada primaries, where Clinton leads heavily in the polls.