Sanders overtakes Biden in Quinnipiac national poll

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken the lead nationally in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday, blowing past the longtime national front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden.

The survey shows Sanders with 25 percent support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, up from 21 percent in a similar Quinnipiac poll conducted late last month. Biden, meanwhile, fell to second place with 17 percent support, down from 26 percent last month. 

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg placed third with 15 percent support, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) finished in fourth place with 14 percent. Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, fresh off a win in the Iowa caucuses, came in fifth place with 10 percent, according to the Quinnipiac poll. 

No other candidate managed a double-digit finish in the survey.

The poll suggests that Sanders has benefited nationally from a burst of momentum following his near-win in the Iowa caucuses. Both he and Buttigieg have declared victory in the Hawkeye State, with Sanders pointing to a lead of 2,500 votes in the raw vote there.

He has requested a partial recanvass of the vote in Iowa, saying errors and inconsistencies led to Buttigieg being awarded too many state delegate equivalents, the traditional metric by which a winner is declared. 

Still, most respondents in the survey — 56 percent — said they could still change their mind before they vote in the Democratic nominating contest, according to the poll. And it remains to be seen how the primary results from states such as New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina bear on the race in the coming weeks.

New Hampshire is set to hold its primary on Tuesday. Polls in the state show Sanders in the lead, though Buttigieg has gained steam there in recent days. 

The Quinnipiac poll is likely unwelcome news for Biden, who has led in every national poll conducted by the university since November. In an interview on “CBS This Morning” on Monday, Biden downplayed his fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, pointing to his lead in national polls as evidence that his campaign is on solid ground.

“I don’t see any diminution in national support,” he said. “I’m still leading nationally. And so the idea that this is a — if you come in third or fourth in the first two primaries, or caucus and a primary, that that knocks you out of the box. We’re just getting going.”

Biden has long benefited from strong support among black voters in his presidential bid. The latest Quinnipiac poll, however, showed Bloomberg cutting into that support. The former vice president took 27 percent support among black voters in the survey, down from 49 percent in the January poll, while Bloomberg notched 22 percent support, up from just 7 percent last month.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 665 Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9. It has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.