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It looks like the debate may have given Elizabeth Warren a slight boost in Nevada

She saw an uptick in support from voters who recently decided on a candidate.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren visits a Nevada caucus site on February 22, 2020.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren visits a Nevada caucus site on February 22, 2020.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren visits a Nevada caucus site on February 22, 2020.
Melina Mara/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Li Zhou
Li Zhou is a former politics reporter at Vox, where she covers Congress and elections. Previously, she was a tech policy reporter at Politico and an editorial fellow at the Atlantic.

It sure looks like Elizabeth Warren’s fiery debate performance last week translated to a slight bump at the Nevada caucuses.

According to early Washington Post entrance polls, Warren performed better among voters who decided in the last few days, compared to those who had decided prior to that. Of the late-breaking voters, 19 percent chose Warren, while 12 percent of earlier voters did.

That seven-point jump is the largest any of the five frontrunners experienced, although it’s worth noting that Warren did not come in first or second with either group of voters.

Among the 86 percent of voters who decided earlier, Sen. Bernie Sanders led with 35 percent support, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 17 percent, and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 15 percent. Among the 13 percent who decided closer to the caucuses, Sanders secured 25 percent of the vote, Biden captured 21 percent, and Warren came in third.

The Nevada caucuses took place just three days after a contentious Democratic debate in Las Vegas that Warren, who had previously seen disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire, dominated. That night, she delivered a breakout performance, grilling former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg over past comments he had made about women, nondisclosure agreements his company employed, and his previous support of the “stop-and-frisk” policy.

Whether Warren’s debate performance will be enough to fuel additional gains for her struggling campaign, however, is an open question. The campaign has previously said that it is focused on turning out a strong performance on Super Tuesday, when 14 states head to the polls and more than 1,300 delegates will be up for grabs.

A Morning Consult poll after last week’s debate found that both Warren and Sanders experienced a two-point bump in support the day after the debate, while Bloomberg saw a three-point dip. The survey noted, however, that the increases the two candidates experienced were within the poll’s margin of error.

As results come in from both South Carolina and the Super Tuesday states, the effect of Warren’s Las Vegas debate performance could become more apparent. In at least one measure, it’s been quite notable: Her campaign saw its best debate fundraising day to date last week, raking in $2.8 million on Wednesday.

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