Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is pulling out of his late-summer, early fall slump, catching up to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) nationally and edging her out in early primary states, according to a Morning Consult poll released Monday.
Morning Consult has consistently shown Joe Biden (D) as the frontrunner, despite numerous national polls suggesting otherwise. The George Washington University Politics Poll released ahead of the fourth Democrat debate, for example, showed Biden falling to third place nationally, behind both Warren and Sanders.
Morning Consult’s latest poll, taken October 21-27, 2019, among 15,431 registered voters likely to vote in the Democrat primary or caucus in their state, showed Biden leading the pack with 32 percent. Warren, who has bested Sanders in a number of polls in recent weeks, tied with the Vermont socialist for second place with 20 percent support each.
The divide between the top tier of candidates and the remainder of the field has become more drastic, with Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) coming in a distant fourth place with just seven percent support, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) with six percent support, and Andrew Yang (D) with three percent support. The remaining candidates garnered two percent support or less. The margin of error is +/- 1 percent:
Sanders also made advances with voters in early primary states, which includes Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. While Biden leads with 29 percent support from voters in early primary states, Sanders surpassed Warren with 18 percent support to the Massachusetts senator’s 17 percent support.
Once again, Buttigieg came in fourth with eight percent support, followed by Harris and Tom Steyer (D) with seven percent and six percent, respectively. The early primary state results came from 611 voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. The margin of error was +/- 4 percent.
Voters were also asked to choose a second choice candidate. According to the survey, 28 percent of Biden supporters chose Warren, 28 percent of Warren supporters selected Sanders, and 30 percent of Sanders supporters picked Biden.
Sanders’ bump in the polls may be indicative of the power behind his recent endorsements from far-left members of the “Squad”– Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).
Tlaib was the latest to endorse “Amo Bernie,” praising him as someone who is “not going to sell us out.”