Sanders: 'I don't think anybody' will get 50 percent in Iowa caucuses

By Graph Massara
A new poll out Saturday showed former Vice President Joe Biden in first place with 24 percent support, an 8-point lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders.

On the heels of a new Iowa Poll, presidential contender Bernie Sanders said Sunday he doesn’t see any candidate, including himself, getting more that 50 percent in February's Iowa caucuses because of the large field of nearly two dozen Democratic candidates.

“Four years ago, there were only two of us in the race, and we split the vote about 50 percent each,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This time, we've got a whole lot of candidates. … We're not going to get 50 percent of the vote in Iowa. I don't think anybody will.”

The Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll, published Saturday, shows former Vice President Joe Biden in first place with 24 percent support, an 8-percentage-point lead over Sanders.

The race for second was closer: 16 percent of respondents backed Sanders, 15 percent backed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 14 percent supported South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Conducted June 2-5 by the Iowa-based polling firm Selzer & Co., the survey of 600 likely Democratic caucusgoers has an overall margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Speaking in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Sanders plans to march with McDonald's workers, the Vermont senator expressed confidence that his campaign would win the state and New Hampshire.

“I think we have a very strong chance of being the candidate who will defeat the worst president in the modern history of this country, Donald Trump,” Sanders said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the size of Joe Biden’s lead over Bernie Sanders in the poll. It is 8 percentage points.