Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden points to his doggie bag as he leaves the Buttercup Diner during a campaign stop in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)
As we roll closer to the Michigan primary, polling suggests that the momentum picked up by former VP Joe Biden is carrying well into the lead in Michigan against Vermont’s “democratic socialist” senator, Bernie Sanders.
According to Fox News, polling shows that Biden has a 15 point lead over Sanders, who not long ago was threatening to take the nomination for himself:
Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a double-digit lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on the eve of the Michigan primary, according to a new poll in the state with the most delegates up for grabs among Tuesday’s Democratic presidential nomination contests.
The former vice president tops Sanders 51 percent to 36 percent among likely Democratic presidential primary voters in Michigan, the Monmouth University survey released on Monday showed.
The poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday, entirely after Biden’s sweeping victories last week on Super Tuesday, when he won 10 of the 14 state contests that were held and took a roughly 90-delegate lead over Sanders.
Fox News adds that when you break the support down by demographics, both white and non-white voters prefer Biden, and the former VP trounces Sanders when it comes to voters over the age of 50. The only advantage Sanders has is in the youth vote:
Biden leads Sanders by 14 percentage points among white voters in Michigan and tops Sanders by 17 points among non-white voters. The former vice president crushes the populist lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist by 38 points among voters 50 years old and over, while Sanders holds an 11-point advantage among those under age 50. Biden holds a 20-point lead among female voters, with men pulling for Sanders by 10 points.
Michigan is worth 125 delegates, making it a high priority for Tuesday. While Biden is definitely ahead now, Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, noted that Michigan can be surprising.
“Biden appears to have the advantage because he is doing well among some groups that Sanders won four years ago. But as we learned in 2016, Michigan can defy expectations,” said Murray.
“The 2016 Michigan Democratic primary is considered to be the biggest polling miss of that cycle. Polls released in the week before the state primary showed Hillary Clinton with anywhere from a 10 to 27 point lead – Monmouth’s poll had her up by 13 points – but Sanders ended up winning the contest by just over a percentage point,” Murray continued.
So while Biden is in the lead, he’s anything but safe.
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