Marquette Law School Poll Shows Sanders Takes the Lead
Friday, February 28th, 2020 -- 8:41 AM
(WRN) -Support for Senator Bernie Sanders has surged among Wisconsin Democrats in the new Marquette Law School Poll.Senator Bernie Sanders has taken a commanding lead over his fellow Democrats heading into the April Primary in Wisconsin. Marquette Law School Poll director Charles Franklin says the difference is significant.
"Big move here for Bernie Sanders at 29 percent. Michael Bloomberg at 17, Joe Biden at 15."
Franklin says support for Sanders jumped to 30 percent of Democrat respondents.
"We saw a 10 point boost for Bernie Sanders, putting him pretty solidly in first place."
Franklin says that is a 10 point shift in favor of Sanders and a significant drop for former vice president Joe Biden.
"We said in January, we said the time to expect some changes is after the caucuses and primaries began, and that is exactly what we see."
That's well outside the margin of error. Sanders also leads over President Donald Trump in potential head to head matchups, 48 to 46 percent.
Among people who identified themselves as Democrats to the poll, 29 percent said they had Sanders as their first choice for president. That was followed up by 17 percent for former mayor Michael Bloomberg, 15 percent for former vice president Joe Biden, 13 percent for Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and 11 percent for Senator Amy Klobuchar.
Since November when the current round of presidential polling started, Sanders has risen from 17 percent approval up to 29 percent, while support for Biden has dipped from 30 percent to 15 percent.
This month's poll from Marquette mirrors results from recent polling from the UW-Madison Elections Research Center. That poll placed support for Sanders at nearly 30 percent of respondents. Following Sanders, all around 13 and 12 percent are former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, former Vice President Joe Biden, mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Senator Elizibeth Warren.
Sanders also holds the field's only lead over a potential election over President Donald Trump. Sanders leads Trump by 48 to 46 percent, and the rest of the field is a point or two behind Trump. Pollster Charles Franklin notes that all of these results are within the margin of error, so it's still a close potential race.
In Wisconsin, the poll also shows that most of the state approves of the job that Governor Tony Evers is doing, 51 percent to 38 percent. A surprising number of respondents also said that they would prefer that a commission, rather than the state Legislature, handle upcoming redistricting maps, 70 to 20 percent. Support for schools over tax cuts continues to weigh in favor of school spending 56 to 38 percent.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.