With less than a month until Illinois’ primary election, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is leading in a new poll of Illinois voters. But the field is still quite divided.
Sanders had 22% support among Democrats, with former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg just 5 points behind at 17%.
The poll of likely voters is from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. It was taken from February 10-17 — before the most recent debate.
Next in the survey are former Vice President Joe Biden (14%), former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigeig (13%), and Sens. Amy Kloubuchar (8%) and Elizabeth Warren (6%).
Andrew Yang, Tom Steyer and “Someone else” brought up the rear at 1% each.
The wildcard in the results is that 17% or Democrats are still undecided.
President Trump, meanwhile, has just a 39% approval rating in the state.
Pritzker’s Job Approval Up 11 Points Since Last Year
Just over half of Illinois voters approve of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s job performance.
Fifty-one percent either strongly or somewhat approve, versus 38 percent who disapprove. That’s up 11 pointes over where Pritzker was a year earlier.
He’s most popular in Chicago and its suburbs and less so Downstate. And as one would expect, his support breaks down along party lines, with three in four Democrats giving him a thumbs up, and three in four Republicans turning thumbs down.
The poll also asked about Democratic Illinois U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who’s up for re-election this year. His numbers were similar to Pritzker’s — with 52 percent approving of his job performance.
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