SANDERS SURGES AHEAD AS BIDEN, WARREN SINK
Vermont senator looks to have inside track
Bernie Sanders holds a seven-point lead over Joe Biden and a 13-point advantage over a slumping Elizabeth Warren in New Hampshire just two weeks before the first-in-the-nation primary, a new Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald-NBC10-Boston poll reveals.
The poll is more good news for Sanders’ surging campaign and comes days after polls show the Vermont senator heading the field in Iowa just a week before the caucuses.
And the poll will likely add to the growing panic among Democratic leaders and establishment figures that the socialist senator could secure a double-barreled win in the opening two contests.
Sanders is getting 29% of likely Democratic primary voters in the new Franklin Pierce-Herald-NBC10-Boston poll, while Biden is at 22% and Warren at 16%. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in fourth place at 10%, followed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 5%.
All of the other candidates in the field are in the low single digits. Mike Bloomberg and Tulsi Gabbard are at 3% support, while Michael Bennet is at 2% and Andrew Yang gets just 1% support.
The poll of 407 likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, conducted Jan. 23-26, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9%.
A Franklin Pierce-Herald-NBC10 poll of likely Granite State Democratic voters two weeks ago had the former vice president in the lead, with Sanders in second place. But the Vermont senator appears to have some momentum on his side heading into the Feb. 11 Granite State primary.
Warren’s support, meanwhile, appears to be waning at just the wrong time for her campaign. Her support dropped 2% from two weeks ago and she appears to be losing the battle with Sanders for progressive votes.
Sanders easily tops the field among self-described liberal voters at 32%, with the Massachusetts senator at just 16% support, according to the poll.
On the Republican side, President Trump is winning 72% of the vote, though there are signs that his support is dropping somewhat. Trump was at 77% support in the Franklin Pierce-Herald-NBC10-Boston poll two weeks ago.
His opponents, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld and former Illinois U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh are now at 7% each — a three point increase in support from two weeks ago.
A clear majority of New Hampshire voters — 55% — also believe Trump should be removed from office, according to the poll.
The poll of likely Democratic voters shows that the dust-up between Sanders and Warren over Warren’s claims that he told her a woman couldn’t be elected president doesn’t appear to have hurt Sanders — in fact there might be a backlash in his favor.
Since Warren refused to shake hands with Sanders on the debate stage, he has moved up in the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire and now is poised to deal a potentially fatal blow to Warren’s campaign in the first in the nation primary state.
The poll was also conducted in the midst of Hillary Clinton’s negative statements about Sanders, but that growing feud hasn’t hurt Sanders, either. Clinton in a new documentary claims “nobody likes” Sanders and complains about the damage he did to her 2016 campaign.
Biden is also bracing for possible losses in the first two contests in Iowa and New Hampshire and counting on wins in the next two states, South Carolina and Nevada. He’s also hoping for big wins on March 3, Super Tuesday.
But the latest polls actually show Sanders with a lead in the biggest Super Tuesday state, California.