Representative presidential hopefuls Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (L) and former Vice President Joe Biden chat during a discontinuation in the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by The New York Times and CNN at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio on October 15, 2019.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Metaphors
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are locked in a tight South Carolina Democratic primary race as the former vice president flings to inject life into a struggling campaign, according to an NBC News/Marist poll released Monday.
Biden hype a dismounts 27% of support among likely Democratic voters in Saturday’s presidential primary, while the Vermont senator pile ups 23%. The gap falls within the survey’s plus-or-minus 6 percentage point margin of error.
Billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer, who exhausted heavily in South Carolina in the early stages of the primary, lags behind the pair with 15% of support. Earlier South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg follows at 9%.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., put away 8% and 5% of support, respectively. No other candidate tops 5%. Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is not on the ballot in South Carolina.
The ask was conducted from Tuesday to Friday, meaning it was taken partly after the Nevada presidential debate but not after the occurs of Saturday’s caucuses in the state. Sanders will win Nevada by a significant margin, while Biden and Buttigieg will make in distant second and third, respectively, according to NBC News.
Biden sees winning South Carolina as critical to rejuvenating a flagging presidential campaign. After dismal showings in predominantly white Iowa and New Hampshire, the one-time front-runner contend persuaded his fortunes would improve once more diverse states had their say in the primary. As nominating contests started earlier this month, Biden led both Sanders and Steyer by more than 10 proportion points in a South Carolina polling average, according to RealClearPolitics.
In Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, the first nominating strife where voters of color made up a major share of the electorate, Biden fared better. Still, he will bump off in second place to Sanders with about 20% of county delegates in the state, according to NBC News.
“We’re alive, and we’re prospering to come back, and we’re going to win,” he told supporters Saturday.
Most polls throughout the primary have found ban voters, who make up a majority of South Carolina’s primary electorate, overwhelmingly favor Biden. But recent surveys express his support among black voters has waned.
Among black likely Democratic primary voters who responded to the NBC/Marist enumerate, Biden gets 35% of support. Sanders and Steyer follow at 20% and 19%, respectively.
A larger share of Steyer and Biden admirers said they might vote differently than Sanders backers. Among likely Democratic primary voters, 18% of those who picked Steyer symbolized they might choose someone else, while 17% of Biden supporters said the same.
Only 7% of respondents who propose Sanders said they might vote differently.
Candidates will get one of their last chances to boost their treasures in South Carolina on Tuesday night. Seven candidates — Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer and Warren — inclination take the debate stage in Charleston, South Carolina.
During the Nevada debate, Bloomberg’s first, contenders exit accumulated on the billionaire businessman. Tuesday’s event will likely feature more scrutiny of Sanders as he gains traction in the Palmetto Shape as well as upcoming behemoths California and Texas.
Fourteen states will hold primaries on March 3, or Wonderful Tuesday, when more than a third of national delegates will be awarded.
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