Beto and de Blasio Not at All Worried About Their Dismal Poll Numbers

The Iowa caucus is still eight months away, but because Iowa is Iowa, the pollsters have already descended on the state to find out where the Midwest’s political weathervane is pointing. And according to new polling numbers, it is not pointing toward Beto O’Rourke or Bill de Blasio.

The latest numbers are from a CNN/Des Moines Register poll, which has former Vice President Joe Biden at the top with 24 percent, followed by Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg with 16, 15, and 14 percent support, respectively. For the rest of the field, the results weren’t so great—a tough pill to swallow, especially for candidates with more name recognition like de Blasio or O’Rourke.

Unfortunately enough for the New York mayor, he came in at a cool 0 percent, something CNN’s Ana Cabrera challenged him on on Sunday. Asked how he was processing the result that “not one single Iowa voter named you as a first or second choice in this new polling,” de Blasio downplayed the results.

“Ana, it’s a poll of 600 Iowans, eight months before the caucuses,” he replied. “This is just the beginning of a very long process. I’ll tell you something, Iowans have consistently surprised the pundits and come out many, many times with a choice that was not expected.”

Both de Blasio and Cabrera have a point. Yes, the poll was only 600 voters. That’s not a huge sample size, and I’m sure if it was expanded you’d be able to find at least one de Blasio voter in the state (probably?). It’s also very, very early in the process. But in an extremely crowded field, putting up a goose egg in a competitive poll does beg the question of… what are you actually doing here, and wouldn’t it be better if you went home and tried to fix some things in your own city?

The numbers were technically less dismal for Beto O’Rourke, who came in at 2 percent in the poll—and who also went with the “lotta time left” excuse.

Beto’s right—he sure isn’t guided by polls! For instance, this poll, which says that he has extremely marginal support for president after an utterly underwhelming start to his campaign. Or, this poll, which found that 60 percent of Texas Democrats want Beto to drop out of the presidential race and, you know, run for Senate again. For now, both of these guys are seemingly content with trying to climb an impossible mountain.