New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom no one asked to run for president, earned the unflattering distinction this weekend of earning exactly 0% support in a recently conducted CNN/Des Moines Register survey.
Respondents were asked to choose their first and their second choice for the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Not a single participant named de Blasio as their first or their second choice.
The poll, released Saturday, shows former Vice President Joe Biden in the clear lead, followed a few points behind by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
De Blasio is not the only 2020 hopeful to earn zero votes in either the first or secondary choice categories. He is joined by Miramar, Fla., Mayor Wayne Messam, who I did not know until this exact moment is also running. What sets de Blasio apart from Messam, however, is his reaction to the poll’s finding that no one is interested in his presidential candidacy.
“I’ll tell you something, Iowans have consistently surprised the pundits and come out many, many times with a choice that was not expected,” the mayor explained in an interview later on CNN.
“[I]t’s a poll of 600 Iowans,” he added in the worst possible follow-up, “eight months before the caucuses. This is just the beginning of a very long process.”
Weirdly enough, CNN anchor Ana Cabrera offered de Blasio an out by suggesting his struggles in in Iowa are because the Hawkeye State is a real-life Pace Picante commercial.
“I wonder if being New York City mayor might hurt you in a place like Iowa,” Cabrera suggested asked.
“It’s a fair concern,” de Blasio responded.
Sure, except this does not explain why even Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., performed better than the mayor in the CNN/Des Moines Register survey. It also does not explain why lawmakers from deep, deep blue states like New Jersey (Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.) and California (Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.) polled better than de Blasio. Even Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who is a veritable nuclear bomb of cringe, had better numbers than the mayor.
De Blasio’s dismal showing this weekend may be as simple as the fact that basically no one wants his as president. The fact that the mayor’s approval rating in New York City itself is lower than President Trump’s suggests as much. Being plain unpopular is a lot more likely the reason for his embarrassing poll numbers in Iowa than some sort of deep-seated regional animosity or distrust.
It is going to be like this every day until he mercifully puts his ill-advised campaign out of its misery.
