Don’t look now but Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist who would send the stock market cratering with a win, is at the top of the latest polling, along with former Vice President Joe Biden, for the upcoming Democratic primary.
The poll among registered Democratic and independent voters, conducted by Reuters/Ipsos, shows 20% would back Sanders over the remaining 11 other candidates for a chance to run against incumbent President Donald Trump, which is a 2% increase from a similar poll last week.
Biden, who has been the front-runner pretty much since he announced he was running, was at 19%. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had surged to the top in October, is at 12% support while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is fourth at 9% and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is in fifth at 6% support.
Since mid-December, Sanders, who “Bond King” Jeffrey Gundlach said recently is the single biggest risk to the stock market, and Bloomberg have both risen while Biden, Warren and Buttigieg have remained steady.
According to the poll, one in five potential primary voters are still undecided, and nearly two in three who picked a favorite candidate said they are open to changing their minds.
Sanders has been among the top three candidates since he decided to run again after losing out to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary.
Judging by polling, Sanders hasn’t dipped since a public spat with Warren, who accused the Vermont Senator of telling her in 2018 that a woman could not be elected president. Sanders denies the accusation and Warren refused to shake his hand after a recent presidential debate.
The public spat has the potential to boost Warren because women are the Democratic party’s biggest swing group and more than twice as likely as men to say they are undecided about which candidate they support. Among the women polled in this survey, nearly two-thirds say they’re open to changing their minds on their preferred candidate.
However, Sanders is so far holding steady at 15% support among women with Warren garnering 11% support.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted from Jan. 15-16 and respondents included 681 Democrats and independents and has a +/- ratio of 5%.