Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden neck and neck in race for Iowa

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are running neck and neck as they seek to capture the first voting state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez welcomes Bernie Sanders to the podium in Perry, Iowa, on Monday. Picture: AP

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are running neck and neck as they seek to capture the first voting state in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, ­according to a poll conducted in the final weeks of a frenzied campaign.

A week before next Monday’s Iowa caucus Senator Sanders, 78, a self-proclaimed “Democratic socialist”, has the backing of 26 per cent of likely participants; a shade ahead of Mr Biden, 77, the former vice-president, who has 25 per cent, a CBS poll suggests.

Senator Sanders and two of the other leading candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, have been kept away from the town halls and gymnasiums of Iowa by the Senate impeachment trial in which they are bound to serve as jurors.

He, however, has had the ­advantage of being endorsed by the New York congresswoman ­Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a rock star of Democratic politics who is credited with helping to energise younger voters.

While Senator Saunders was stuck in Washington Ms Ocasio-Cortez, 30, campaigned on his ­behalf, fronting rallies and filling college halls. She told volunteers in Cedar Rapids: “It doesn’t rely on any one person to carry this whole movement on their back. We all shoulder a little.”

With the Republican defence of Donald Trump to resume in the Senate on Tuesday AEDT after a day’s break, Ms Ocasio-Cortez on Monday introduced Senator Sanders to a rally in Perry, Iowa.

Shifting poll results in recent months point to a party torn and still undecided over the best way to defeat Mr Trump in the November election.

Pete Buttigieg, 38, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has gained a national profile in the race while staking out a position as a moderate and potentially unifying candidate, was in third place in the poll with 22 per cent.

Senator Warren, 70, who surged into the lead in Iowa polls last year, and was widely seen to have supplanted Senator Sanders as the avatar of the party’s left wing, was in fourth place with 15 per cent, although she was able to celebrate a key endorsement from the Des Moines Register, the state’s largest newspaper.

Acknowledging the unsettled and still undecided nature of the race, it hailed her as “the best ­leader for our times”. It noted that she had once been a registered ­Republican, that she was an avowed capitalist and “not the radical that some perceive her to be”, but pointed to her record of helping to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as proof that she was well placed to tackle economic inequality in the US.

Senator Klobuchar, 59, from Minnesota, received the endorsement of the Union Leader newspaper in New Hampshire, the second state in the race. It backed her as a “proven” leader with an ability to unite and attract moderate voters. “She is sharp and witty, with a commanding understanding of both history and the inner workings of Capitol Hill,” it said.

In a persistently uncertain contest, in which voters speak of second-guessing how others may vote as they seek a candidate capable of challenging Mr Trump, Senator Klobuchar has frequently been tipped for a late surge. But she has struggled to top 10 per cent in polls. In New Hampshire, Senator Sanders holds a commanding lead, with 25 per cent, ahead of Mr Biden on 16 per cent, according to a poll by CNN and the University of New Hampshire.

Senator Sanders was once dismissed as a candidate who attracted a stable but small portion of the party. His campaign was widely discounted after he had a heart ­attack in October, but the ­endorsement of Ms Ocasio-Cortez has been credited with reviving his fortunes. The CBS poll that placed Senator Sanders ahead in Iowa also offered a clue as to his staying power in the race: nearly half of those who said they would support him indicated they had definitely made up their minds.

The same was true of only 40 per cent of Senator Warren’s likely supporters, 35 per cent of Mr Buttigieg’s likely supporters and 27 per cent of Mr Biden’s likely supporters.

The Times