MU poll finds Sanders out front of Dem pack, November race with Trump still tight

Bernie Sanders jumped out to a double-digit lead among Dem primary voters in the latest Marquette University Law School Poll.

Meanwhile, the presidential race in Wisconsin continued to be tight.

The latest poll found 29 percent of those who plan to vote in the state’s April 7 Dem primary backed Sanders, while 17 percent supported Mike Bloomberg. Joe Biden was at 15 percent, Pete Buttigieg 13 percent, Amy Klobuchar 11 percent and Elizabeth Warren 9 percent.

Last month, Biden was the first choice of 23 percent of Dem primary voters, while Sanders was at 19 percent. They were followed by Buttigieg (15), Warren (14) and Bloomberg (6).

Poll director Charles Franklin noted Sanders won the state’s presidential primary four years ago. Then he won 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties.

It is the first time since August 2019 that Sanders topped the Dem field in the Marquette poll.

“He certainly is building on a base of support that he had here from four years ago,” Franklin said.

The presidential race continued to be tight with the hypothetical matchups within the margin of error. That includes:

*Trump 47, Warren 44
*Sanders 48, Trump 46
*Biden 46, Trump 46
*Trump 45, Bloomberg 44
*Buttigieg 45, Trump 45
*Klobuchar 46, Trump 46

Meanwhile, 48 percent approve of the job Trump is doing, while 48 percent disapproved. It was the first time in the poll that his job approval rating wasn’t underwater.

The poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Feb. 19-23 using landlines and cellphones. The margin of error for the overall sample was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points. For the 490 Dem primary voters surveyed, the margin of error was plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.