Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is closing in on former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.
A new poll released by CBS on Sunday shows Biden’s lead narrowing to single digits in South Carolina, falling to 28% while Sanders clocks in at 23%, followed by billionaire Tom Steyer at 18%. The survey echoes the RealClearPolitics average, which shows growing momentum for the Sanders campaign and declining support for Biden in the state.
In November 2019, CBS found that the former vice president had a 28-point lead, but the latest data shows the gap has since plummeted to just 5%. Steyer had just 2% support in the state in November. Meanwhile, 30% of Biden’s November supporters have jumped ship, with half of them now supporting Steyer.
The survey was conducted among 2,000 likely Democratic and independent voters from Feb. 20-22. The results reflect the state’s preferences prior to Sanders’s decisive Saturday night victory in Nevada, but most voters said the outcome of the caucuses would not affect their decision in the South Carolina primary.
Biden has seen disappointing results thus far in the Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada Democratic contests. Alan Patricof, a Biden donor and venture capitalist, warned earlier this month that the 36-year Delaware senator and two-term vice president needed to perform well in Nevada and South Carolina in order to maintain fundraisers’ confidence.
“Everybody’s sticking with Joe until they see what happens there,” he said, referring to the Feb. 29 South Carolina primary.
The CBS survey has a margin of error of approximately 5.5 points.
