Bernie Sanders is carrying a commanding double-digit lead over the other Democratic presidential contenders, according to a national poll released on Wednesday.
The Vermont senator garnered 32 percent of support from Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents — an increase of 8 percentage points from the same survey taken last month, the ABC News/Washington Post poll found.
His closest competition was former Vice President Joe Biden, whose support fell 11 points to 17 percent.
The disappointing results continue a nosedive for Biden, once the race’s overwhelming frontrunner.
In contrast to Biden, Mike Bloomberg’s good fortune continued as he gained 6 percentage points in the poll, coming in third place with 14 percent.
A Virginia-specific poll released on Tuesday showed Bloomberg tied with Sanders for first in the Old Dominion.
In another Tuesday poll, Bloomberg ranked highly enough in a national survey to enable him to qualify for Wednesday’s debate, just hours before the cutoff.
That victory cleared Bloomberg to make his 2020 debate-stage debut in Las Vegas, staring down the rest of the field — and a live, national television audience — for the first time in this election cycle.
Support for the bottom half of the field in Wednesday’s poll, meanwhile, barely budged from last month.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, once among the field’s upper echelon, finished fourth with 11 percent, holding static from January.
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, despite strong finishes in the Iowa and New Hampshire races, gained just 2 percentage points to finish in fifth place with 7 percent.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota rounded out the half-dozen hopefuls with 6 percent, doubling the 3 percent she registered in January.
The poll’s respondents also picked Sanders as the candidate with the best shot of defeating President Trump in a head-to-head election, giving him 30 percent.
Biden nabbed 19 percent and Bloomberg grabbed 18, though the former vice president was trending sharply downwards while Bloomberg carried positive momentum.
Warren had the confidence of 3 percent of respondents, while Buttigieg and Klobuchar failed to rate.
The poll’s results were released ahead of Saturday’s Nevada caucuses, continuing the Silver State’s week in the political limelight.
South Carolina holds its primary on Feb. 29 and then 14 states go to the polls on Super Tuesday, March 3.