New Hampshire Primary Poll: Pete Buttigieg Passes Bernie Sanders Ahead Of Critical Contest
Pete Buttigieg continues to see a bounce from his surprising win in the Iowa caucus, with a new poll showing the South Bend mayor passing Bernie Sanders in the critical upcoming contest in New Hampshire.
Buttigieg was declared the winner of the Iowa caucus after a long delay caused by problems in counting votes in the first-in-the-nation contest. Though the Indiana mayor had been leading in polls for Iowa late in 2019, polling showed he had fallen off in recent weeks as Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden rose to the top. Buttigieg’s win on Monday was seen by many political pundits as a surprise.
Buttigieg now continues to surge. A Suffolk University survey for the Boston Globe and WBZ-TV released Friday night showed that Buttigieg surpassed Sanders in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary of the Democratic nomination contest. As Fox News noted, the survey showed that Buttigieg had the support of 25 percent of voters and Sanders had 24 percent support.
For Buttigieg, the latest poll showed that he had climbed 10 percentage points in the course of three days, rising from 15 percent in the previous Suffolk tracking poll.
The latest poll also showed that Biden, who finished a disappointing fourth in Iowa, was dropping. He fell to 11 percent in Friday’s poll, down four points in three days. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had passed Biden, rising three points to 14 percent in the same time that Biden dropped.
As Fox News noted, the New Hampshire primary has traditionally been difficult to poll in the past as voters in the Granite State are known for making late decisions. That was the case in 2008, when Barack Obama had a surprise win in the Iowa caucus and polls showed that he was prepared to follow it with a win in New Hampshire as he jumped to a significant lead, but instead Hillary Clinton won in a narrow race.
Polling points to uncertainty in New Hampshire this year as well. At the same time the Suffolk poll showed Buttigieg moving into the lead, another poll showed that Sanders was maintaining his lead in the state, which borders Vermont where he serves as a U.S. senator. The NBC News/Marist College poll released Friday showed that Sanders was leading the pack with 25 percent support, ahead of Buttigieg with 21 percent.
Sanders and Buttigieg clashed at the ABC News debate on Friday, with the South Bend mayor calling out Sanders for his rigid approach to politics.
Both the Suffolk poll and the NBC News/Marist College poll showed that Buttigieg and Sanders were within the margin of error, making both statistical ties.
