Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and his rising rival Michael Bloomberg (D) are tied for first place in the Super Tuesday state Virginia, a Monmouth University poll released Tuesday showed.
Just weeks away ahead of Super Tuesday, wherein a cluster of states — Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia — will vote for their Democrat of choice, Bloomberg is rising.
Both Sanders and Bloomberg are tying in the Super Tuesday state of Virginia with 22 percent support each, according to Monmouth University.
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) came in third with 18 percent support, followed Pete Buttigieg (D), who garnered 11 percent support. The remaining candidates failed to reach double-digit support.
Monmouth University Polling Institute conducted the survey February 13-16, 2020, among 400 Virginia voters likely to vote in the March 3 Democrat primary. The margin of error is +/- 4.9 percent.
#Virginia @MonmouthPoll (2/14-16):
Bloomberg 22%
Sanders 22%
Biden 18%
Buttigieg 11%
Klobuchar 9%
Warren 5%
Gabbard 1%
Steyer 0%— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) February 18, 2020
“Virginia provides an interesting test on Super Tuesday. A wide range of candidates appeal to voters here and it is very much a jump ball at this point,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said.
Murray added that both Biden and Bloomberg perform stronger against Sanders than Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) among “Virginia’s racially diverse electorate.”
He said:
When pitted against Sanders, Biden and Bloomberg are stronger in Virginia’s racially diverse electorate than Klobuchar and Buttigieg. Two of the leading candidates are already well known and the third has been spending a lot of time and money here, so we can’t be sure whether these differences are the product of real preferences or just name recognition. This should become clearer when all the candidates start focusing on Super Tuesday.
A strong Super Tuesday performance has remained key to Bloomberg’s strategy. While he has virtually ignored the first four primary and caucus states, he hopes to emerge with strong performances on Super Tuesday. He has already spent over $124 million in political advertising in the March 3 states, which is “well over 10 times what his top rivals have put into the contests that yield the biggest trove of delegates in a single day,” according to Politico’s Playbook.
Sanders has spent “just under $10 million” on advertising in Super Tuesday states, the Playbook added.
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