Bloomberg creeps into 3rd place in new national poll

Quinnipiac University released a new national poll Monday and it's a doozy.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) took his first lead among Democratic presidential candidates in the poll, grabbing 25 percent support from those surveyed, while the usual frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, dropped nine points. He's still in second place, but billionaire and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg looks like he's encroaching on Biden's turf, jumping up eight points which puts him in third place and just two behind the vice president. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) comes right behind Bloomberg.

New Quinnipiac poll of Dems nationally shows Sanders overtaking Biden big time:

Sanders 25
Biden 17
Bloomberg 15 (!)
Warren 14
Buttigieg 10
Klobuchar 4https://t.co/gltmlDDstw

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) February 10, 2020

One of the keys to Bloomberg's rise and Biden's dip appears to be their standing among those surveyed who identify as a moderate or conservative Democrat. Biden generally held a wide lead in the category, per Quinnipiac, but Bloomberg trails him by just 1 percentage point now, 22 to 21.

In other news, Quinnipiac has Sanders, Biden, Bloomberg, Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all leading President Trump head to head, despite only Klobuchar and Buttigieg carrying favorable ratings.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,519 registered voters, including 665 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, across the United States over the phone between Feb. 5-9. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points overall and 3.8 percentage points among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. Check out the full poll here.