Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is rapidly closing the gap with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but she still maintains a solid lead in Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, according to a poll released Saturday.

Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner and establishment favorite, is drawing 37 percent of the vote. Sanders earns 30 percent of the vote. Vice President Joe Biden, who is still wavering on making a run, earns 14 percent. This is the first time Clinton has fallen short of a majority in the Iowa poll, conducted by pollster Ann Selzer for the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg, this year.

« This feels like 2008 all over again, » Selzer told the paper, referring to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s remarkable victory over Clinton in the caucuses then. In January, Clinton led Sanders by more than 50 percentage points and he drew just 5 percent of the vote.

Without Biden in the contest, Clinton’s support jumps to 43 percent and Sanders’ climbs to 35 percent. The three other Democrats running for the presidency — former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee — all fail to earn even five percent of the vote.

Clinton remains broadly popular with Democratic regulars in the state. Seventy-seven percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers have a favorable opinion of her, and only 19 percent have an unfavorable opinion. Those numbers peaked at 88 percent favorability and 10 percent unfavorable in June. Only 13 percent said they could never support her in the caucus. Sixty-one percent said controversies surrounding her use of a private e-mail server while working as Secretary of State were « not important. » And two-thirds are « mostly confident » Clinton would win a general election.

Sanders’ popularity has boomed. Seventy-three percent of likely caucusgoers have a favorable opinion of him, up from just 37 percent in January. Then, a majority of likely Democratic voters didn’t know enough about Sanders to have an opinion. Among Sanders supporters, 96 percent said they back him because they like his ideas and policies. Only 3 percent support him because of dislike for Clinton.

Only 8 percent said they had a negative opinion of Sanders. Hillary’s unfavorables are more than twice as high at 19 percent.

Selzer conducted the poll of 404 likely Democratic caucusgoers from August 23 to August 26. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.