After seeing a dip yesterday, former mayor Pete Buttigieg regained some ground and Sen. Amy Klobuchar continued to rise in the latest 7NEWS/Emerson College New Hampshire tracking poll — but they’re still behind a steady Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Sanders, who has remained atop the poll, was consistent at 30 percent, the same as yesterday. After dropping to 20 percent, Buttigieg swung back up to 23 percent and Klobuchar, who saw a 4-point bump yesterday, increased another point to 14 percent.
Both Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden saw declines of 1 percent, with Warren now polling at 11 percent and Biden at 10 percent.
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang held steady at 4 percent and billionaire businessman Tom Steyer also saw no change from his 2 percent, but Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard dropped one point to 2 percent. Former Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick held steady at 1 percent and Sen. Michael Bennet, who previously had not made a mark in the poll, is now also at 1 percent.
By Tuesday night, the nation will know the winner of the 2020 N.H. Democratic primary and which candidate beat or failed to meet expectations.
Emerson College pollster Spencer Kimball believes there are certain things these candidates can do to maintain their lead or grow their base.
Sanders has remained atop the poll since Thanksgiving and now it is time for him to translate that into votes.
“Bernie tomorrow needs to preform, his poll numbers have him at 30 percent. He’s got to get out the youth vote, if he doesn’t and underperforms it could open the door for a new competitor,” Kimball said.
Buttigieg, second place in the poll, still has some work to do to finish strong.
“Pete Buttigieg needs to get the voter who wants an outsider in this race,” he said. “What he has to do is tell voters why he should be the nominee and he still has a little time left to make that move.”
Klobuchar nearly doubled her support in N.H. this week alone and she will surely need every person she can get to go to the polls Tuesday.
“Amy Klobuchar continues to win with older voters. She’s got to continue to pull away from the establishment vote that’s been sitting with Joe Biden and she’s got to perform into third or fourth place tomorrow night, otherwise, her campaign is heading back to Minnesota.”
Mass. Senator Elizabeth Warren faces a similar do-or-die plight.
“Elizabeth Warren needs to beat expectations tomorrow,” Kimball said. “Right now, they have her tied at fourth or fifth place with Joe Biden, we need to see her jump into third and r3eally get some momentum in this campaign. Otherwise, she might be staying in Massachusetts after this.”
While Joe Biden is still the Democratic front-runner nationally, New Hampshire has the power to cripple his campaign.
“Joe Biden has lowered expectations in New Hampshire. During the debate, he pretty much was saying, ‘I’ll come in fourth or fifth,’ and that’s really what he’s doing,” Kimball explained. “This might be a problem if he’s trying to get some momentum into Nevada if he does have a fifth place finish.”
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