Less than a month from the Iowa caucuses, US Senator Bernie Sanders, former US vice president Joe Biden and former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg are in a three-way tie for first place in the first state to vote in the Democratic presidential primary.
The same CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday put Sanders first in New Hampshire, the second state to vote.
The poll showed a group of five candidates breaking from the pack and continued a key primary narrative: the rise of Sanders, even after a heart attack, at the expense of US Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Iowa votes on Feb. 3. New Hampshire follows eight days later.
In Iowa, CBS/YouGov found Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg level on 23 percent, with Warren fourth on 16 percent and US Senator Amy Klobuchar fifth on 7 percent.
All other candidates in the sprawling field failed to pass 3 percent.
In New Hampshire, Sanders attracted 27 percent support to 25 percent for Biden, 18 percent for Warren, 13 percent for Buttigieg and 7 percent again for Klobuchar.
National polling averages still put Biden well clear of Sanders, with the tech investor Andrew Yang (楊安澤) and the billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg — who is not competing in the early voting states — ahead of Klobuchar.
Last week saw the candidates reveal how much money they raised in the final quarter of last year. Sanders led with US$34.5m, from Buttigieg with US$24.7 million, Biden with US$22.7 million and Warren with US$21.2 million. Klobuchar raised US$11.4 million, nearly US$5 million behind Yang.
US President Donald Trump raised US$46 million, an ominous number as he amasses a huge war chest for a re-election effort under the shadow of impeachment.
The CBS/YouGov poll also included telling data regarding which Democrat, whether a progressive (Sanders, Warren) or a moderate (Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar), voters thought most likely to beat Trump in November.
In Iowa, 38 percent backed Biden to beat the president, to 29 percent for Sanders, 24 percent for Warren and 21 percent for Buttigieg.
In New Hampshire, 36 percent backed Biden while 33 percent thought Sanders could do the job, 22 percent had confidence in Warren and 15 percent liked Buttigieg’s chances.
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