Bernie Sanders surged to a 16 point lead in a new poll on the race for the Democratic presidential nomination as Michael Bloomberg’s campaign issued a ‘dire’ warning that the liberal senator may soon be unstoppable.
Sanders leads Joe Biden, 32 per cent to 16 per cent, in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren are within spitting distance to second place with the former vice president.
But Pete Buttigieg dropped to single digits, coming in at 8 per cent to Amy Klobuchar’s 7 per cent.
Bernie Sanders surged to a 16 point lead in a new poll on Democratic primary
Michael Bloomberg’s campaign issued ‘dire’ warning that Sanders could be unstoppable
Sanders also leads in the RealClearPolitics polling average on the race and as he rises in the polls so have the attacks against him.
The latest comes from Bloomberg’s campaign, which issued a memo warning that Sanders may soon have amassed enough delegates that his nomination is inevitable.
‘Bernie is likely to open up a delegate lead that seems nearly impossible to overcome,’ Kevin Sheekey, Bloomberg’s top strategist wrote in the memo obtained by Axios. ‘I don’t think many people understand the dire circumstances here.’
The memo looks at the delegate count – the margin a candidate needs to meet to win the party’s nomination.
Bloomberg’s strategy has focused on skipping the four early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina in favor of the Super Tuesday contest. The 14 states that vote on March 3 award one-third of the delegates needed for the nomination.
‘If Sanders moves past Super Tuesday with the 4040 delegate lead we currently project he will have, it will be all but impossible to stop him from getting to a plurality (or even majority) of the pledged delegates,’ the memo states.
Pete Buttigieg leads in the current delegate count with 22 but Sanders is right behind him with 21. Elizabeth Warren has 8, Amy Klobuchar has 7 and Joe Biden has 6.
The warning from Bloomberg’s camp is aimed at Democratic fears that Sanders, a self-described socialists, would be too liberal for most voters in the general election – thus handing a second term to President Trump.
It also comes ahead of the next round of voting in the primary contest – Nevada on Saturday, South Carolina on February 29 and the Super Tuesday states on March 3.
Democrats have cited the ability to beat President Donald Trump as one of their biggest factors in choosing a nominee.
Moderate candidates have used that against Sanders – and to a lesser extent Elizabeth Warren – as fears increase the liberal senator from Vermont would not be able to beat the incumbent president.
Joe Biden dropped in new poll on race following poor showing in Iowa and New Hampshire
Biden’s plummet in the new polls comes after his poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, which has damaged his argument he is the best candidate to defeat Trump this fall.
The Bloomberg campaign issued the memo on the day of the Democratic debate in Los Angeles – the first one that will see Bloomberg on stage.
His rivals for the nomination have already forecast their attacks lines against him, focusing on his billions.
Bloomberg is self-funding his campaign – and he’s already spent $400 million – leading to Democrats to accuse him of trying to buy the presidency.
Source: dailymail US
