Poll: Bloomberg, Sanders, Biden top the Democratic field in Virginia
A new survey shows Democratic presidential candidates Mike Bloomberg, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden locked in a tight race in Virginia just two weeks before its Super Tuesday primary.
Both Bloomberg and Sanders enjoy the support of 22 percent of respondents who are likely to participate in the Democratic primary, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Tuesday. Eighteen percent of likely Democratic primary voters polled said they support Biden, whose standing has slipped after poor performances in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary earlier this month.
Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in fourth place in the poll with 11 percent support, followed by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar with 9 percent and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 5 percent. Another 11 percent of likely primary voters are still undecided, according to the poll.
Virginia is one of more than a dozen states holding Democratic primaries on March 3, a crucial date in the competition to determine the party’s nominee.
Bloomberg has staked his candidacy on amassing delegates during those Super Tuesday contests, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign advertising and bypassing the first four nominating states.
The billionaire businessman has drawn greater fire from his fellow White House contenders in recent days, as well as more intense scrutiny of his record as New York’s former mayor.
Still, Bloomberg has continued to amass broader support in public polling, while his candidacy has threatened the campaigns of Biden and other Democratic moderates seeking to unseat Sanders as the primary’s frontrunner.
Meanwhile, surveys show Sanders leading in the next nominating contest, the Nevada caucuses, scheduled to take place on Saturday. Democratic candidates including Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren are set to face off during a televised debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The Monmouth University poll surveyed 706 registered voters in Virginia, of which 400 said they were likely to vote in the state's Democratic presidential primary. Respondents were surveyed by telephone Feb. 13-16, and the poll's margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
