Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in a national poll, reflecting his rise amid vast campaign spending and her fall after touting a Medicare for All healthcare program.
The Hill-HarrisX survey, from Jan. 20 to 22, shows Bloomberg at 11% and Warren at 9%. Support for Bloomberg’s campaign grew approximately 4% this month while Warren’s fell 2%, reflecting her decreasing momentum seen in other polls.
Warren peaked nationally at 19% in October but has witnessed a steady decline.
In the Hill-HarrisX poll, former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, took first place with 29%, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders came in second with 17%. Sanders also witnessed a decline of 2% since the last Hill-HarrisX poll, though some surveys show him with a commanding lead in early primary states.
Part of Bloomberg’s success, however, comes from his campaign’s attempts to use humor through viral social media strategy. Earlier this week, Bloomberg, 77, tweeted a video where he declared his love for “Big Gay Ice Cream.” The mayor exclaimed, “Mmmh, Big Gay Ice Cream is the best!”
And after failing to qualify for the seventh Democratic debate in Iowa, Bloomberg’s campaign tweeted during the debate, posting an image of the candidate’s face edited into a meatball.
The Hill-HarrisX poll has 878 respondents with a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points.
