Kelly Cohen reports for the Washington Examiner on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders‘ recent uptick in Democratic presidential primary polls.
Bernie Sanders continues to gain on Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Among Democrats in Iowa, Clinton leads the independent Vermont senator 52 percent to 33 percent, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll. Though the former secretary of state still maintains a double-digit lead over Sanders, the lead has shrunk. In the last poll of Iowa Democrats, conducted in May, Clinton had a commanding lead of 60 percent to Sanders’ 15 percent.
“[S]en. Sanders has more than doubled his showing and at 33 percent he certainly can’t be ignored, especially with seven months until the actual voting. Iowa Democratic caucus-goers are generally considered more liberal than primary voters in most other states, a demographic that helps his insurgency against Secretary Clinton who is the choice of virtually the entire Democratic establishment,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said. …
… Meanwhile, in Wisconsin Wednesday, Sanders supporters packed the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Madison, filling its 10,000 seats. The crowd was his largest to date.
“Tonight we have made a little bit of history,” the 73-year-old self-described socialist told the crowd. “Tonight, we have more people at any meeting for a candidate of president of the United States than any other candidate.”
Speaking to supporters in the reliably liberal capital, Sanders took shots at the state’s governor, Scott Walker, who is set to soon announce his campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Sanders also spoke of the economy Wednesday night, touching on a $15-an-hour minimum wage, raising taxes on the rich and expanding infrastructure spending and building.