(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Democratic presidential candidate former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg (L) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) participate in the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six candidates qualified for the third Democratic presidential primary debate of 2020, which comes just days before the Nevada caucuses on February 22.
With an insurgent Bernie Sanders and a wounded Michael Bloomberg on the debate stage in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, it may have been surprising to see Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg butt heads on several occasions.
However, a look at the numbers shows why the two Midwestern moderates would have an incentive to knock the other down a peg.
More than 70% of Klobuchar's supporters are at least Pete-curious, telling Insider they would be perfectly fine with him as the nominee through seven polls conducted between December and early February.
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By contrast, Buttigieg's opponent with the most crossover among his supporters is Elizabeth Warren at 68.7%, with Klobuchar in fourth at 45%.
After a two-three finish in New Hampshire, the two candidates did everything in their power to push the other aside in Vegas.
Things started to get heated when Buttigieg criticized Klobuchar for being unable to name the president of Mexico during an interview in Nevada earlier this week.
Buttigieg told the same reporter, "Yeah, President [Andrés] Lopez Obrador, I hope."
Klobuchar took exception to the swipe.
"I wish everyone was as perfect as you, Pete," she quipped.
Klobuchar hit Buttigieg on his lack of political experience and for sticking to "talking points."
The two did not shake hands afterwards.
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In an interview with MSNBC in the "spin room," Klobuchar said other candidates told her they have forgotten the names of important figures before, and that Buttigieg was out of line.
"I thought what he did was personal," she told Chris Matthews. "… It was one error and he decided to make that the centerpiece of his attack."
Klobuchar the lamented the overall tone of the evening, which saw far more fireworks than previous debates.
"Not my favorite night for the Democratic Party," Klobuchar told Matthews.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weigh its sample based on race or income.