Democratic voters paying little mind to the 2020 presidential campaign prefer Michael Bloomberg to Pete Buttigieg, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
The national poll, released Monday, found that 13% of registered Democrats and 31% of Democratic-leaning independents are paying little or no attention to the race. Former Vice President Joe Biden was the top choice of these groups with 30% support, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 19% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 16%.
Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, was in fourth place with 13% support among those paying little or no attention, while Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, had 2%.
Those are a stark contrast from results that included voters paying some or a lot of attention to the race, where Biden led with 30% support, Warren had 17%, Sanders had 16%, Buttigieg received 9%, and Bloomberg came in fifth place with 7%. Bloomberg gained two points since a national Quinnipiac poll released last week, while Buttigieg’s support was unchanged.
Self-funding his campaign with an estimated $55.7 billion fortune, Bloomberg, 77, has placed an estimated $117.8 million in television, Facebook, and Google ads nationwide since launching his candidacy about three weeks ago. The television ads run during daytime soap operas, game shows, NFL games, and news program 60 Minutes, among other placements.
“Certainly it helps to have the ability to communicate a message broadly,” said Dan Kanninen of the Bloomberg campaign. “It’s something that’s unique. People have not tried to run a national campaign in this way.”
Bloomberg is running an unconventional campaign focused on winning broad support in March 3 Super Tuesday states and beyond rather than focusing on the first four state nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. He opened a field office in North Carolina on Sunday, where Warren is the only other top-tier candidate with state field offices.
“What you see candidates doing in Iowa and New Hampshire, we’ll be doing all over the country,” said Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey.
While Buttigieg, 37, comes in fourth place in most recent national polls, he leads the field in Iowa, where he has a large, traditional field operation. He has 22.5% support in RealClearPolitics’s average of Iowa presidential primary polls, while Sanders has 19.3%, Biden has 18%, and Warren has 16.3%.
Bloomberg also bested Buttigieg among black voters in the Quinnipiac poll. Biden received 52% support among black Democrats and those leaning Democratic, followed by Warren at 14%, Bloomberg at 7%, Sanders at 6%, entrepreneur Andrew Yang at 3%, and Buttigieg tied with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker at 2%.
Poll results on Democratic presidential primary preferences were based on a survey of 567 voters registered Democratic or independent voters who lean Democratic, conducted with live interviewers on landlines and cellphones from Dec. 11 to 15. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.
