USA TODAY International Edition
Biden leads in national poll
Bloomberg debuts in top 5 after just entering race
WASHINGTON – Despite announcing his presidential campaign just last month, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg jumped into the top five in a new 2020 Democratic primary poll.
Bloomberg earned 5% support from Democrats and Democratic- leaning voters in a Monmouth University poll published Tuesday, ahead of some of his opponents who have been running all year but still far from the leading three candidates.
Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the pack at 26%, according to the poll. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders follows at 21%, while Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped to 17%.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg gets 8% support from those surveyed. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar follows Bloomberg at 4%. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang at 3% and Sen. Cory Booker at 2% are the only other candidates above 1%.
This poll doesn’t help Yang or Booker qualify for the debate in December; candidates need at least 4% or more support in at least four polls, which include national polls or polls in the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina or Nevada, or 6% support in two single early- state polls.
Yang needs one more poll to qualify for the debate, while Booker needs four. The deadline to qualify is Thursday.
Since Bloomberg officially announced his bid Nov. 24, the billionaire has spent millions more on advertisements than his Democratic opponents. Before announcing his candidacy, Bloomberg was at 2% in March and 4% in January, according to Monmouth University polls.
Bloomberg scores 26% favorable ratings among all registered voters and 54% unfavorable. Among Democrat and Democratic- leaning voters, Bloomberg is at 40% favorable and 39% unfavorable.
Bloomberg’s favorability is much lower with Democrats and Democratic- leaning voters than the ratings of some of his 2020 opponents, such as Warren who is 76% favorable and 15% unfavorable, Biden at 76% favorable and 20% unfavorable and Sanders at 74% favorable and 21% unfavorable.
“Bloomberg said he got into this race because he wants to defeat Trump, but his campaign kicks off with even lower ratings than the incumbent,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “That is not the most auspicious start, but views of Bloomberg are not as deeply held as they are for Trump, so he has room to shift those opinions.”
Warren dropped 6 percentage points from November’s Monmouth University poll, when she was at 23%. Sanders gained 1 percentage point from last month, when he was at 20%.
Biden gained 3 percentage points from last month’s Monmouth poll.
The poll was conducted by telephone Dec. 4- 8, surveying 903 adults. Using results from 838 registered voters, there is a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.