|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Bernie Sanders campaign is surging in the polls ahead of the Iowa caucuses taking place on Feb 3. CNN released a national poll showing the Vermont senator leading the field for the first time in his run, with 27 percent of likely voters saying they will support the senator. This is up 10 points from where he was polling back in November.
The CNN poll is one of the only polls showing Sanders outright leading former Vice President Joe Biden in national polling, as other polls are showing the Vermont senator surging, but not leading. The Sanders campaign was written off by many after the 78 year old senator had two stents inserted into his heart following a heart attack.
Following Sanders heart attack, most polls showed just 14 percent of likely voters putting their support behind the senator. However, during the same time period, former Vice President Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren were polling 12 points ahead of the Vermont senator; both candidates polled at 26 percent. In the three months following the Senator having a heart attack, he has seen a slow but steady rebound in national polling. Also since his heart attack, the Sanders campaign has surged nine points on average polling at 24 percent as of mid-January.
The Sanders campaign has seen a slow but steady rise in national polling and the same can be said about the early primary states. Bernie Sanders is currently either first or second in the polls in all of the early voting states. The most recent CNN/DM Register polling showed 20 percent of likely Iowa voters pledging their support to the Vermont senator, with one of the most recent Emerson polls showing him leading the pack with 23 percent of likely primary voters putting their support behind him.
Sanders also sits atop the field of the most delegate rich state California. He is polling at 23 percent in California which is actually tied with Biden. The senator comes in a close second in early primary states, according to Morning Consult polling, with 23 percent of early primary voters supporting him, which also has him three points behind Joe Biden.
Senator Sanders polling is not the only sign of his campaign gaining momentum. He has also topped the large Democratic field in fundraising in all four quarters of 2019, raising nearly $100 million. The Sanders campaign is not only out raising his democratic colleagues, but he is doing so without a single billionaire contributor to his campaign. He is the only candidate running for president who has not received any donations from the top one percent. Due to his grass-roots movement, his campaign has been able to have the lowest average contribution of any candidate with the average donation to his $34.5 million fundraising quarter being just $18.
The Vermont senator not only raised more money than any other Democratic candidate, but he also managed to get more individual donations, individual donors, and more volunteers than any other campaign at this point in history. This makes Sanders the only candidate to have more donors than President Trump.
After his heart attack in October the Sanders campaign received endorsements from prominent democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar better known as “The Squad.” In the months following being endorsed by three fourths of the squad, his campaign has received many more prominent endorsements, including endorsements from Bolivian President Evo Morales, the Iron workers Union, Rep Pramila Jayapal, filmmaker Michael Moore, and the Sunrise among others.
Written by Jaylen Conwell. Edited by Kimberley Spinney.
Sources:
Morning Consult: Early State Polling
CNN: 2020 democratic national polls
CBS News: 2020 Democratic candidates reveal final third-quarter fundraising totals
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons license