A new SurveyUSA poll shows Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders leading Donald Trump by the most significant margin among all of the 2020 candidates, Newsweek reports.
Of the 4,069 registered voters that were asked who they would vote for today in a hypothetical head-to-head against the Republican incumbent, 52 percent said they would choose Sanders, and 43 percent chose Trump. The closest candidate to the Vermont senator’s nine-point lead over the president is former Vice President Joe Biden at 50 percent to the president’s 43 percent, putting him in a seven-point lead over the real estate mogul.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg also led Trump at 49 percent to 42 percent, as did Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 48 percent to 45 percent. In addition, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg toppled Trump by three points at 47 percent to 44 percent and businessman Andrew Yang came out on top over the president by two points at 46 percent to 44 percent.
While billionaire Tom Steyer tied Trump with 44 percent, the remaining candidates ?— Amy Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard ?— lost to the incumbent.
SurveyUSA noted that the polls were conducted before the New York Times’ controversial endorsement of Warren and Klobuchar, as well as before Trump’s inflammatory 2017 comments about U.S. armed forces surfaced.
Sanders has been rising in polls lately, and it appears that the Trump campaign has taken notice. The president’s 2020 campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said on CBS This Morning on Wednesday that the 78-year-old politician is “on a rise,” per CBS News .
“We’re building a system that’s ready for anyone, but I think Bernie’s on a rise right now, but I think the media’s — I think he’s getting a little bit of the shaft again.”
Per the Washington Examiner , Trump previously noted Sanders’ rise on Twitter while simultaneously taking a jab at the Democratic Party.
“Wow! Crazy Bernie Sanders is surging in the polls, looking very good against his opponents in the Do Nothing Party. So what does this all mean? Stay tuned!”
NEW: @BernieSanders responds to ? @realDonaldTrump ?’s claims that the Democratic Party is “rigging” the election to hurt his campaign.
Sanders turns the tables back on Trump. Full statement: pic.twitter.com/Uwzs0lfpMT
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) January 17, 2020
In addition to the SurveyUSA poll, recent polls show Sanders beating Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin ?— all wing states Trump won in 2016.
The Vermont senator’s rise has also caught the attention of Barack Obama and his allies, who are reportedly distressed at the Medicare for All advocate’s surge but don’t know what to do about it. The former president has reportedly said he would intervene in the Democratic primary to prevent Sanders from winning — if need be.
A former senior Obama campaign staffer was quoted as saying that the 58-year-old politician’s dislike of Sanders stems from his campaign’s implication that Obama was not a “progressive” president.
