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LAS VEGAS — Sen. Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a double-digit national lead in the Democratic presidential contest after his victory in New Hampshire's primary and his second-place finish for delegates in Iowa's disorganized caucuses, while former Vice President Joe Biden has seen his support drop by 11 points since his disappointing finishes in both contests, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday.</div>
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The survey also shows former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg gaining ground in the Democratic race in the past month, confirming the findings of an earlier NPR/PBS/Marist poll that allowed him to qualify for Wednesday night's NBC News and MSNBC Democratic debate in Las Vegas.</div>
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And the poll has President Donald Trump's approval rating tied for his all-time high in the NBC News/WSJ survey, while also finding that the most unpopular candidate qualities in a general election are being a socialist, being older than 75 years of age and having a heart attack in the past year.</div>
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"There is one clear and inescapable set of results: Bernie Sanders is the definitive front-runner, and the current numbers do not represent his ceiling, but instead his base with room to grow," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.</div>
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"His downsides are there," Hart added of Sanders. "But they've yet to be exploited by his opponents."</div>
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In the poll, Sanders gets the support of 27 percent of Democratic primary voters — unchanged from January's NBC News/WSJ survey before the Iowa and New Hampshire contests.</div>
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But so much else is different.</div>
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Biden now gets support from 15 percent of Democratic primary voters, which is down from 26 percent last month.</div>
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Bloomberg is at 14 percent (up 5 points); Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts also gets 14 percent (down 1 point); and Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is at 13 percent (up 6 points).</div>
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota gets support from 7 percent of Democratic primary voters, which is up 2 points since last month.</div>
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No other candidate gets more than 2 percent in the poll.</div>
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Inside the Democratic horse-race numbers, Sanders, the Vermont independent, over performs among liberals and those ages 18-34.</div>
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Biden and Bloomberg, meanwhile, do the best among moderates and conservatives, as well as those who are 65 and older.</div>
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Biden continues to lead among African American Democratic primary voters, but his support has declined from 52 percent in January to 38 percent now, while Sanders' backing among these voters has remained steady in the 20s.</div>
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Bloomberg's support among African Americans has doubled from 9 percent last month to 18 percent now.</div>
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"Biden's support with African Americans is under assault," said McInturff, the GOP pollster.</div>
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When the Democratic field is reduced to just Sanders and Bloomberg, Sanders holds a 20-point national lead, 57 percent to 37 percent.</div>
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And Sanders also holds a double-digit lead over Buttigieg in a hypothetical two-person race, 54 percent to 38 percent.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, TimesNewRoman, "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville, serif; font-size: 18px;">Turning to the general election in November, 47 percent of all registered voters say they approve of Trump's job performance, up one percentage point from last month and tied for his all-time high in the NBC News/WSJ poll.</span></h2>
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Fifty percent say they disapprove.</div>
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In addition, 53 percent of voters say they approve of the president's handling of the economy — up 1 point since October 2019.</div>
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In hypothetical general-election matchups, Trump trails five major Democratic candidates, but all of his deficits — except against Biden — are within the poll's margin of error.</div>
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Biden leads Trump nationally by 8 points, 52 percent to 44 percent.</div>
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Bloomberg is ahead by 7 points, 50 percent to 43 percent.</div>
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Sanders (50 percent to 46 percent) and Buttigieg (48 percent to 44 percent) hold 4-point advantages over Trump.</div>
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And Klobuchar leads the president by 3 points, 48 percent to 45 percent.</div>
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But many of these margins get smaller when the race is narrowed to voters from 11 battleground states — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.</div>
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Bloomberg's lead decreases to 2 points, (48 percent to 46 percent); Sanders (49 percent to 48 percent) and Klobuchar (48 percent to 47 percent) to 1 point; and Buttigieg is tied with Trump (47 percent to 47 percent).</div>
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Only Biden maintains his same lead, 52 percent to 44 percent.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, TimesNewRoman, "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville, serif; font-size: 18px;">The NBC News/WSJ poll also asked voters about seven different descriptions for presidential candidates. The most unpopular:</span></h2>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;">A combined 67 percent say they have reservations or are "very uncomfortable" with a candidate being a socialist.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; position: relative;">Fifty-seven percent have reservations/are very uncomfortable with someone who had a heart attack in the last year.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; position: relative;">Fifty-three percent have reservations/are very uncomfortable with someone who's older than 75.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.5rem; position: relative;">Forty-one percent have reservations/are very uncomfortable with someone who self-funds their campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars.</li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; position: relative;">And a combined 40 percent have reservations/are very uncomfortable with a candidate who is younger than 40.</li>
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By contrast, just 27 percent of all voters say they have reservations or are very uncomfortable with a presidential candidate who is gay or lesbian.</div>
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And only 14 percent say they're bothered by a candidate being a woman.</div>
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When identified by name, 47 percent of all voters say they are "very uncomfortable" with Trump on the ballot in 2020; 44 percent say the same about Sanders; 41 percent say that about Warren; and 39 percent say it about Biden.</div>
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Finally, 51 percent of all voters in the poll say they favor the Senate's decision to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial.</div>
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That's compared with 47 percent who oppose the Senate's decision.</div>
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And 53 percent say that Trump's comments and actions after his acquittal have been inappropriate, versus just 20 percent who believe they have been appropriate.</div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The NBC News/WSJ poll was conducted Feb. 14-17 of 900 registered voters — more than half of whom were reached by cellphone — and its overall margin of error is plus-minus 3.3 percentage points.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The margin of error for the 426 Democratic primary voters the poll </em><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">measured is plus-minus 4.8 percentage points.</em></div>
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<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">News Reported By <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/nbc-news-wsj-poll-sanders-opens-double-digit-national-lead-n1138191" target="_blank">nbcnews.com</a></em></div>
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NBC News/WSJ poll: Sanders opens up double-digit national lead in primary race

LAS VEGAS — Sen. Bernie Sanders has jumped out to a double-digit national lead in the Democratic presidential contest after his vic...

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Spend time with people who supported Presidential Candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and quickly discover that the reasons why they voted for Trump had little to do with him.<br />
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It is probably one of the most misunderstood threads between this new conservative populist coalition. To get the real reasons for your support for Trump, you have to be where they are, have no preconceived ideas about who they are and have no prejudices for what you think their motives are.<br />
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Tom Schaub, Ralph Petersheim, Donna Leum, Kris Amundson and Ben Klinkner are seated around a large conference table at Westby's Creamery Cooperative in the city of Vernon County. There is a coffee maker and a large box of donuts. The aroma that only fresh baked donuts can provide radiation in any room.<br />
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All four are milk producers. Schaub is president of the cooperative. Petersheim was recognized for his land and water conservation efforts by the county, which earned him the outstanding prize of conservation farmer for his impeccable land efforts. The Leum family owns a dairy of 53 cows and their two adult children are found in different aspects of the dairy industry. The Amundson family produces £ 17,200 of milk per cow per year for the cooperative. Klinkner is a sixth generation farmer in his family's organic dairy.<br />
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All are members of the board of directors of a cooperative that was formed over 117 years ago by families of local dairies looking for a way to develop a sustainable market for their milk and dairy products in their dairy.<br />
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Individually, they are superhuman. Not only do the dawn hours work until nightfall to offer you cheese, yogurt, milk, sour cream and any other dairy treatment that fills the refrigerators (cows are milked twice a day every day of the year); they are devoted soil and water environmentalists and are tireless volunteers who dedicate countless hours to the 4-H club, local schools, their churches and the cooperative council.<br />
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Everyone said that their vote for Trump was not for him but for their communities.<br />
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It was an abstract and complicated decision that rarely makes sense for people who don't walk in their shoes, live in their zip code or understand how long the establishments on both sides have disappointed them, their parents, their grandparents and their children. below.<br />
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"People who don't know peasants or who live near or in an agricultural community don't have a clue why we feel so connected to our place," said Leum. "But they seem to have strong opinions about who we are, and when they find out we support Trump, they look at us like that silly peasant who knows nothing better."<br />
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"Well, those stupid farmers are electricians. They are plumbers. They are mechanics, scientists, environmentalists. They take care of the crops that fill their closets, (they) love and take care of the animals that supply dairy products and meat for the their parties. They are also vets. and engineers, "he says with pride and a broad smile. "I mean, we have all these skills because you can't keep calling repair people, so you do it yourself. So, really, I think we're pretty smart."<br />
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Altogether, there are 68,700 farms in Wisconsin covering 14.4 million acres of land. They provide nearly $ 90 billion for the state economy each year and employ over 400,000 people across the state.<br />
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There are nearly 8,500 dairy farms in Wisconsin. Hundreds of them closed in 2019, continuing a ten-year trend that members of the Cooperative Council have said is largely based on a complex system of fixed prices and costs spanning a wide range of production.<br />
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"At a cooperative level, we are priced ahead of what the milk should be for the month, so we base all our prices on the products we are manufacturing and selling," explained Schaub. "And then, when the final price comes, it can be a $ 2 difference."<br />
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"Well, that $ 2 difference ... There's no way to fix it, so you have a loss for that month. So, you spend too many months in a row, and that's when things get tough." He said, adding that the end result could be bankruptcy.<br />
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The five farmers like President Trump's policies. Your behaviour? Not so much. But they knew that Trump would reach better trade deals, which he did with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada deal.<br />
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Vernon County is one of 23 counties that voted for the then President Barack Obama in 2012 and was changed to Trump in 2016.<br />
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While many national media have parachuted with the counties of Vernon in the last presidential race to ask Trump's voters when the trade agreement was extended, when the report of Special Attorney Robert Mueller was published and when Trump was accused (and acquitted), few journalists ask voters how they got here in the first place. Additionally, few members of Republican and Democratic institutes who make fun of farmers behind closed doors (or openly on social media) have reflected significantly on why farmers chose Trump over their establishment candidates.<br />
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Despite the complaints of the talkative class claiming that there have been too many stories about Trump's voters, farmers like these have a story to tell about lives centered around faith, family and agriculture. Few who really know them could argue that they are not creating a profound benefit for the whole country.<br />
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The Reason They Support Trump Isn't About Trump

Spend time with people who supported Presidential Candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and quickly discover that the reasons why they voted...

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The Reason They Support Trump Isn't About Trump

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