If Iowa voters are any indication, 2016 may be shaping up as the year that angry voters coalesce on their gripes more than any single candidate.

Responses from Republicans and Democrats who described themselves as likely to attend next year’s first-in-the-nation caucuses in the latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll reveal a strong level of bipartisan discontentment over the state of American politics. When asked to assess their feeling about “politicians in general,” just 7 percent of Republicans and 16 percent of Democrats said they were either “happy” or “satisfied.” By contrast, 91 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats surveyed said they were either “unsatisfied” or “mad as hell” about politicians.

Those figures help explain the strong showing in the polls for billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, three candidates who have all pitched themselves to voters as either political outsiders or alternatives to the mainstream.

In the Democratic primary, the poll released Saturday showed Sanders has gained significant ground on front-runner Hillary Clinton, with 30 percent of likely caucus-goers supporting Sanders compared with Clinton’s 37 percent. In May, Sanders was at just 16 percent and Clinton was at 57 percent.

Pollster J. Ann Selzer, who conducted the survey for Bloomberg and the Register, appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” noting that there were some important firsts in the poll.

“The first thing that jumps right off the page is this is the first time in Iowa that we’ve seen Hillary Clinton below 50 percent. And she’s not just a little below 50 percent, she’s lost a third of her support since June,” Selzer said.

She said that although Sanders is 7 points behind overall, he’s already leading with the coalition that cost Clinton her last nomination bid.

“(Sanders) leads by over 20 points with people who say they consider themselves independent, and people who are under age 45. Now that’s the Obama coalition. Those are the groups that he put together that surprised Hillary Clinton in 2008,” Selzer said.

A separate Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll of likely Republican caucus-goers still had Donald Trump leading with 23 percent, but Ben Carson was creeping closer to him, with 18 percent.

Once again, poll participants favored the perceived outsiders. According to one participant, Patrick Messmore, a 32-year-old salesman from Black Hawk County, that’s no accident. Messmore said Trump is his first choice and that either Carson or Ted Cruz were good second choices.

“I think the biggest thing is his kind of no nonsense approach to everything and he’s not a lifetime politician,” Messmore said.

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