Campaign

Pollster defends dropping Warren from national match-ups against Trump

by Marty Johnson - 02/19/20 10:15 AM ET

A pollster who conducted a recent national survey for NBC News and The Wall Street Journal defended the decision to exclude Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) from a head-to-head portion of the poll against President Trump after the news sources received blowback from Democratic primary voters following the survey’s release.

Peter Hart, a pollster who works for the firm that conducted the survey, defended the decision on Monday to place Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in a head-to-head match-up against the president, but exclude the Massachusetts senator.

“Amy Klobuchar was selected as the fifth candidate,” Hart told BuzzFeed News. “We have tested Warren earlier, and I suspect she will be part of the next testing.”

The last time the NBC-Wall Street Journal poll ran hypothetical match-ups against Trump, Warren was included and narrowly edged out the president, 48 percent to 45 percent. It was the third time Warren had been included in such a head-to-head match-up in this election cycle.

In the poll, Warren was tied with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg for third place with the support of 14 percent of respondents. The pair trailed former Vice President Joe Biden (15 percent) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) (27 percent).

The poll included candidates Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Klobuchar. Both Buttigieg and Klobuchar placed behind Warren in the poll.

Klobuchar, who surged to a third-place finish in New Hampshire after a fifth-place showing in Iowa, has received increased media attention since then.

This was first time the poll tested Klobuchar against Trump. Like Warren had before, she beat the president 48 percent to 45 percent.

Hart said Klobuchar’s recent surge was behind the poll’s decision to survey her over Warren.

“We want to know where the [candidates] ‘start’ and what groups are moving toward them as they gain momentum,” he said.