A new Iowa survey of the 2020 Democratic presidential contest shows Pete Buttigieg surging in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, locked in a three-way race with frontrunners Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
Eighteen percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers back the former vice president, while 17 percent favour the Massachusetts senator and 13 percent prefer the South Bend, Indiana, mayor, according to a Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who lost the 2016 caucuses to Hillary Clinton by less than 1 percentage point, achieved 9 percent support in the poll.
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Four candidates garnered 3 percent: billionaire Tom Steyer, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, California Sen. Kamala Harris and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Still, 29 percent of caucus-goers say they remain undecided.
The poll was conducted in the days after the fourth Democratic debate, during which Buttigieg adopted a more aggressive posture and accused Warren of equivocating on the cost of her Medicare For All proposal.
Other recent Iowa surveys — including a CBS/YouGov poll conducted before the debate and several state-wide polls in September — have also had Buttigieg in either the high single-digits or low double-digits.
In the last several weeks, Buttigieg has sought to establish himself as a pragmatic alternative to primary voters unmoved by Warren’s brand of progressive populism and reluctant to embrace the more moderate Biden, whose standing in public polling has begun to diminish.
