(Bloomberg) -- Amy Klobuchar, fresh off a strong debate performance, has risen to third place in two tracking poll of New Hampshire voters released Sunday.Bernie Sanders still holds a sizeable lead in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tuesday, with 30% in a 7 News/Emerson College tracking poll. Pete Buttigieg, who appears to have collected the most delegates in the chaotic Iowa caucuses, was second in New Hampshire with 23%. The two men have consistently held the first two slots since the caucuses last Monday.
Elizabeth Warren had 11% and
Joe Biden came in fifth at 10%.In a Suffolk University/Boston Globe/WBZ tracking poll, Sanders had 27% to Buttigieg’s 19%. Klobuchar was third with 14% and in that poll, Biden and Warren were tied for fourth with 12% each.But Klobuchar’s rise puts a new dynamic into the 2020
Democratic field.Klobuchar got high marks for her closing argument in Friday’s debate about the need to elect someone who understands average Americans, and she has stayed out of the bickering that has marked the weekend’s campaigning. Since Friday’s debate, her campaign says she has raised $3 million.The Emerson tracking poll done for 7 News was conducted Saturday and Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. The Suffolk poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points and was also conducted Saturday and Sunday.Biden’s low standing was a sign that he hasn’t fully regrouped from the “gut punch” fourth-place finish in Iowa. He is banking on strong showings in Nevada’s caucus on Feb 22 and the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29 to maintain his argument that he is best suited to take on President
Donald Trump in the fall.Yet the New Hampshire primary remains fluid. Some 31% of respondents in the Emerson survey said they could still change their mind before Tuesday’s vote.To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Benjaminson in Manchester, New Hampshire at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Derek WallbankFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.