Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg takes second place in a newly released New Hampshire poll, picking up momentum amid delayed Iowa caucus results.
An Emerson poll released Wednesday shows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with a commanding lead in New Hampshire, polling at 32%. But results show Buttigieg in second place with 17%, beating former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who are polling at 13% and 11%, respectively.
Support for Buttigieg, 38, and Sanders, 78, grew by 5% and 3%, respectively, since Tuesday, indicating that their front-runner statuses in Iowa have boosted their momentum thus far.
“Bernie may have gotten his bounce yesterday as his Iowa poll numbers gave him front runner status and his New Hampshire numbers increased from 29% to 32% between day 1 and 2 of the track, but with the news today of Pete’s Iowa performance he saw his own 5 point bounce between day 2 and 3,” said Spencer Kimball, the director of Emerson College Polling.
With 62% of Iowa precincts reporting, Buttigieg leads the Democratic field with 26.9% of state delegate equivalents, while the Vermont socialist has 25.2%. And despite Warren’s capture of over 18% in Iowa, the poll suggests a continual decline in New Hampshire support for her campaign, falling 2% since Tuesday.
Biden has fallen behind in both Iowa and New Hampshire, grabbing approximately 15% support in Iowa amid early reporting and 13% in the Emerson poll.
The poll was conducted from February 2-4 and featured responses from registered Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents. It has 500 respondents with a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
