MINNEAPOLIS _ Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar remains stalled behind a clutch of top Democratic contenders for president in Iowa, gaining little traction in an influential Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Friday.
Three weeks ahead of the Feb. 3 caucuses, Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders pulled ahead of the field with 20% of likely Democratic caucusgoers naming him as their first choice for president. Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren polled 17%, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg garnered 16%, and former Vice President Joe Biden got 15%.
Klobuchar finished fifth with 6% _ no change from the same poll two months ago.
The DesMoinesRegister.com poll asked likely Democratic caucusgoers their top choice for president among 14 candidates for their party's nomination. With voters prepared to render the final verdict in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, the poll serves as an early barometer of where the 2020 presidential candidates stand at a crucial juncture in the primary contest.
The results also came hours ahead of the midnight Friday deadline for candidates to meet the Democratic National Committee's polling requirement to participate in Tuesday's scheduled debate in Des Moines, the last before Iowans caucus on Feb. 3. Besides Klobuchar, five other candidates have qualified for what also will be the first debate of 2020: former Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren, and businessman Tom Steyer.
In the last Des Moines Register poll in November, Klobuchar also finished fifth, with 6% support. The November poll also showed Buttigieg rocketing ahead of Warren, the previous leader in the poll, as well as Biden and Sanders, who were tied for third at the time.
Klobuchar, who recently completed a campaign milestone with stops in all 99 Iowa counties, has been riding a new wave of national attention after well-received debate performances in November and December. Her campaign reported that she collected $11.4 million in contributions in the last three months of 2019, nearly half of the more than $25 million she has raised since joining the presidential contest last Feb. 10.
Banking on late momentum, Klobuchar is counting on Iowa, a neighboring Midwestern state, to propel her into the top echelon of the Democratic primaries heading into New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Doubling down on Iowa, Klobuchar has released a new ad to kick off her "Day of Action" in Iowa _ an organizing push on Saturday that will include canvassing and phone bank events to pump up support before the caucuses.
