Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is surging to a double-digit lead of 31% among Democratic voters, breaking away from his Democratic rival, Michael Bloomberg, according to a new poll.
The National Public Radio/PBS Newshour/Marist/ poll, conducted Feb. 13-16 following the New Hampshire primary, shows Sanders with a 12% lead over Bloomberg’s 19%.
The poll results, released on Tuesday, were based on responses from 527 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent registered voters.
The latest news follows Sanders’ sharp response to Bloomberg’s criticism of his political views.
Yesterday, Bloomberg’s campaign manager, Kevin Sheekey, published a statement on the campaign website referring to Trump as “Bernie’s new bro.” Sheekey called out Sanders and accused him of attacking Bloomberg in a manner similar to Trump’s recent attack.
While the poll does have a 5.4% margin of error, it still projects Sanders in a relatively positive light. However, many Democrats are still concerned about Sanders being the front runner as he describes himself as a Democratic socialist.
“It’s a shameful turn of events to see Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump deploy the very same attacks and tactics against Mike, but the reason is clear. At this point, the primary is Bernie’s to lose, and ours to win. Bernie knows this. Trump knows this. That’s why they are united in the campaign against Mike,” said Sheekey.
As expected, Sanders didn’t take the suggestive statement likely. Just hours after the remarks were made, Sanders fired back via Twitter with a photo of the billionaire businessman and Trump on the golf course.
While Sanders didn’t include a caption for the image, his supporters wasted no time chiming in to support him. In fact, many responded in similar fashion shedding light on multiple photos of Trump and Bloomberg together. The road to the White House will be an uphill battle for Sanders but he shows no signs of backing down anytime soon.