Pete Buttigieg Surges In Iowa, Tops The Field In Second Straight Poll
Pete Buttigieg continues to surge in Iowa with a second straight poll in a matter of days showing the South Bend, Indiana, mayor leading the Democratic pack in the critical first voting state.
Buttigieg topped the latest Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll with a double-digit jump in just the last two months, the Des Moines Register reported. He was the first choice of 25 percent of likely Democratic caucusgoers, an improvement of 16 percentage points from the same poll back in September. It marked the first time in the poll that Buttigieg had climbed over Democratic frontrunners Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. All three are now close to 10 points behind Buttigieg.
Iowa holds caucuses on February 3, the first state to vote in the 2020 Democratic Primary and a critical race to determine momentum. It was Barack Obama’s shocking win in the 2008 Iowa caucus that helped to vault him to the nomination, and Buttigieg will look to score a similar upset with an even smaller national stature than Obama had at the start of the 2008 race.
As The Inquisitr noted, other polls have shown Buttigieg’s sudden rise in Iowa. A Monmouth University survey released earlier in the week showed that Buttigieg came out on top with 22 percent support, just ahead of Biden with 19 percent, Fox News reported.
Patrick Murray, the director of Monmouth University’s polling division, noted that the South Bend mayor had made gains with some critical demographic groups in Iowa.
“Buttigieg is emerging as a top pick for a wide variety of Iowa Democrats. While he has made nominally bigger gains among older caucus-goers, you really can’t pigeonhole his support to one particular group. He is doing well with voters regardless of education or ideology,” Murray said.
Buttigieg has also seen strong numbers in the second state to vote, New Hampshire. He was tightly packed with Warren and Sanders in a recent Quinnipiac University poll, with the three close to Biden, the state’s frontrunner.
But as CNN noted, Buttigieg has been able to stay largely out of the fray and has not been a target for much scrutiny compared to Biden, Warren, and Sanders. If he continues to surge or takes a place among the national frontrunners, he would likely start to see more direct attacks from other candidates and has already started to see some of that this week. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said that a woman with the same resume as Buttigieg wouldn’t have made the cut for the upcoming debates.
