“It’s extremely encouraging,” Buttigieg told reporters in California when asked about the poll on Saturday.

“We have felt a lot of momentum on the ground,” Buttigieg said, citing his own visits to Iowa and his campaign’s organizational efforts there.

“And even now, we know that we’re not as well-known as some of my competitors,” he said. “So, it’s very encouraging, and at the same time, there’s a long way to go, and there are a lot of states in this process.”

The poll is the latest evidence that the Democratic race in Iowa — and for that matter nationally — has narrowed to four main candidates and then everyone else. The next closest was Amy Klobuchar, with 6 percent support. Even as contenders such as Kamala Harris have consolidated resources in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, they’ve failed to gain ground. Harris notched just 3 percent in the poll.

The numbers reflect the improbable rise of Buttigieg, a small city mayor from Indiana performing beyond expectations in Iowa, a state with a long history of making or breaking presidential candidates. Buttiegieg had lagged in polling even as he built national star power with standout fundraising that’s rivaled Warren and Sanders. The new poll firmly establishes him as a top-tier contender.

Stuck in single digits for months, Buttigieg broke out with a standout performance at a marquee Democratic Party dinner earlier this month. He’s drawn steadily larger crowds at the same time he has rapidly invested in the state, doubling his staff presence and opening 20 offices across Iowa in the past six weeks.

“The poll is certainly how it feels on the ground. Mayor Pete is catching fire at the right moment that everyone hopes for in the Iowa caucuses,” said Polk County Chair Sean Bagniewski. “He’s fortunate to have the team and ground game to back it up too. We may be looking at a two-person race between him and Sen. Warren until February.”

Buttigieg has also spent significant sums in recent weeks on digital and TV ads in Iowa, and has gone on two highly-publicized bus tours.

His rise comes at a pivotal time in the race, after two new candidates threaten to clog up the centrist lane that Buttigieg now occupies. Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced his candidacy this week, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg has filed in two states and pledged to spend $100 million nationally on anti-Trump ads.

The Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll was conducted Nov. 8-13 by the West Des Moines-based firm Selzer & Co. It surveyed 500 likely Democratic caucus-goers, the margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

In September’s Register poll, it was Warren who showed momentum, pulling ahead of Biden for the first time, 22 percent to 20 percent. Sanders had dropped to 11 percent. The slide could come as a warning sign for Warren, who has come under scrutiny lately over her embrace of Medicare For All, raising questions about her viability as a general election opponent.

Of those surveyed, said 36 percent said they preferred a candidate who advocated for big ideas with a lower chance of becoming law versus 52 percent who preferred incremental change that had a better chance of becoming law.

Still, the Massachusetts senator is widely viewed to have the best field organization of the field.

The trajectory is likewise discouraging for Biden, whose decline continues even after he significantly boosted his field presence in the state. A promising sign for Biden, however, is that more than 50 percent of those polled say they are fairly confident or certain that he can beat Donald Trump in a general election. He was the only one of the four top candidates to achieve more than a majority on that question.

At the same time, just 30 percent of those surveyed in the poll said they had made up their minds, leaving plenty of room for fluctuations in the field between now and the Feb. 3 caucuses. Buttigieg has not firmly taken a turn in the hot seat as have the three other top candidates who have seen their numbers fall after facing attacks and heightened media scrutiny. And detractors have long pointed to the South Bend mayor’s lack of support among African Americans as a nagging problem for the candidate, who is still polling in the single digits in South Carolina.

David Siders contributed to this report.

