Polls: Sanders leads in New Hampshire, Buttigieg second
February 6, 2020
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg aren’t just duking it out for first place in the still-unresolved Iowa caucuses.
According to new polling in New Hampshire, the two top finishers in Iowa are also leading the field in next week’s first-in-the-nation primary there.
A Monmouth University poll released Thursday shows Sanders, the senator from neighboring Vermont, with support from 24 percent of likely voters, putting him narrowly ahead of Buttigieg at 20 percent. Joe Biden, who finished fourth in Iowa, is in third at 17 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 13 percent.
The Monmouth survey comes on the heels of the latest Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University tracking poll, which also shows Sanders ahead of Buttigieg at the top of the race. In that survey, conducted entirely after the Iowa caucuses, Sanders is at 25 percent and Buttigieg at 19 percent. Trailing behind are Biden (12 percent) and Warren (11 percent).
Compared to the previous Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University tracking poll, taken right before the Iowa caucuses, Buttigieg increased 8 points, while Sanders ticked up a single point. Biden has slipped 6 points and Warren is down 2 points.
Taken together, the two newest polls suggest New Hampshire could deliver a similar verdict as Iowa: strong performances for Sanders and Buttigieg that could fuel their campaigns moving forward, and disappointing finishes for Biden and Warren that would question the viability of their campaigns.
In the Monmouth poll, the top four candidates are the only ones in double digits, though Sen. Amy Klobuchar is fifth at 9 percent.
Still, New Hampshire’s primary is notoriously volatile, and with only eight days between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, there are lots of voters still weighing their options. Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said just 49 percent of voters say they are firmly decided.
“Many voters in New Hampshire remain open to switching their support,” Murray said. “The muddle out of Iowa hasn’t narrowed the field, but there are some hints in the poll that Buttigieg could be helped and Biden hurt as the caucus results start to sink in.”
The Monmouth University poll was conducted Feb. 3-5, surveying 503 likely voters, 130 of whom were interviewed before the first results from the Iowa caucuses were released on Tuesday. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
The Boston Globe/WBZ-TV/Suffolk University tracking poll was conducted Feb. 4-5, surveying 500 likely voters. That poll also has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Source: https://www.politico.com/
