Bernie Sanders Leads In All National Polls Released The Week Before Nevada Caucuses
Ahead of Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders leads in all 10 polls released this week, Newsweek reports. In terms of percentage points, the surging candidate appears to have support that ranges from the mid-20s to low 30s.
Trailing Sanders are former Vice President Joe Biden and businessman Michael Bloomberg, who are roughly tied for second place.
On the lower end of the spectrum, a Hill/HarrisX poll released Wednesday showed Sanders with 22 percent support, Biden with 19 percent in second and Bloomberg trailing with 18 percent. Sanders performed the best in an ABC News/Washington Post poll that saw him with 32 percent support, doubling the backing of Biden, the second-place candidate, who gained 16 percent support. In third was Bloomberg with 14 percent.
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll along with the Republican pollster Bill McInturff, claims that Sanders is the race’s clear front-runner with the opportunity to continue growing.
“There is one clear and inescapable set of results: Bernie Sanders is the definitive front-runner, and the current numbers do not represent his ceiling, but instead his base with room to grow.”
According to RealClearPolitics, Sanders has an average percentage of support of 28.7, almost four points higher than the 23.6 percent from a week earlier. As for Biden and Bloomberg, they appear to be moving in opposite directions in recent weeks, with Biden on the decline with 17.3 percent support and Bloomberg on the rise with 15.2 percent.
This morning’s new nationwide polling numbers from the respected NPR/PBS/Marist Poll — Bernie Sanders ahead in first place by double digits – a whopping 12% over his 2nd place challenger, a Republican billionaire— the first of 2 Republican billionaires Sanders will beat this year pic.twitter.com/rLDOM9qSdf
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) February 18, 2020
Per Jacobin Magazine, some have warned that Sanders is an extreme candidate that is not ideal for taking on Trump.
“Or take the unshakable conviction of so many pundits that Bernie is a ‘factional candidate’ with a ‘hard ceiling’ of support due to his ‘extreme’ political stances,” the report reads.
But as the publication notes, Sanders reportedly has the highest favorability of any candidate in the race, and he is the least disappointing according to a YouGov poll of Democratic primary voters. In addition, one survey of Democrats showed that respondents viewed Sanders’ position as the second-most closely aligned with their political views, with Biden in first.
During Wednesday’s presidential debate, Sanders was the only candidate to express the belief that the person with the most delegates heading into the Democratic National Convention (DNC) should be the Democratic Party’s nominee, regardless if they have the majority or not.
“Well, the process includes 500 super delegates on the second ballot. So I think that the will of the people should prevail, yes. The person who has the most votes should become the nominee,” he said, per Breitbart.
