Bernie Sanders surges to the top in new 2020 California poll

Support for Bernie Sanders is surging in California, according to a poll released Monday afternoon from the Public Policy Institute of California.

For the first time since the group began polling voters about the state’s 2020 primary election, Sanders leads the field of candidates, though he remains in a statistical tie with Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren.

Sanders has 27 percent support from likely Democratic primary voters, while Biden and Warren have 24 percent and 23 percent respectively.

Sanders’ support jumped by 10 points since PPIC last surveyed Californians in November, while support for Warren and Biden remained flat.

Pete Buttigieg polled at 6 percent, followed by Amy Klobuchar at 4 percent, Andrew Yang at 3 percent and Michael Bloomberg at 1 percent.

Yang dropped by 2 percentage points, Buttigieg dropped by 1 point and Klobuchar rose by 3 points.

The poll gave respondents the option of selecting the top five candidates who qualified for Tuesday’s Democratic debate. It did not include Bloomberg or Yang as rotated choices in live interviews, which could contribute to an undercount.

The poll reported a margin of error of 6.5 percentage points among the 530 respondents. Three-fourths of participants were reached by cell phone, while the remaining quarter were contacted by landline.

Despite Sanders’ increased momentum in the Golden State, likely voters still see Biden as the best person to beat President Donald Trump in a hypothetical general election match-up.

Forty-six percent of likely voters said they thought Biden had the best chance of beating Trump, compared to 25 percent for Sanders and 10 percent for Warren.

The three candidates were tightly packed as voters’ second choice, with 23 percent of likely voters picking Sanders as a second option, 22 percent picking Warren and 20 percent picking Biden.

To get a pledged district-level delegate in California’s March 3, 2020, primary candidates need at least 15 percent support. Only three candidates would be likely to pick up a notable number of delegates. If the race remains this closely contested, there could prove to be no apparent winner on election night.

This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 5:12 PM.