Democrats kick off their nominating contest for the 2020 president election with Iowa caucuses Monday with Senator Bernie Sanders clearly ahead in polls followed by, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, former Vice-President Joe Biden, Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is being watched closely. Though his millions in ad spent have not started reflecting in polls yet, he is seen by some as a candidate the Democratic establishment might rally around should Biden fail, to take on the progressive Sanders.

Sanders had narrowly lost the 2016 caucuses to Clinton. And he has a “powerful ground game” this time, John Zogby, a political strategist and pollster, said, adding, “It’s enough to suggest that if he wins outright or wins if he comes in the top two, Bernie Sanders actually has a chance to go all the way and win the nomination”.

Biden, some experts have contended, can survive a defeat in Iowa and make up in the next states, but not Warren, who has seen her poll numbers slide in recent weeks Buttigieg, who has been called the “breakout star” of the 2020 race, is said to have peaked too early and his campaign may have “lost its footing” recently.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is polling in the fifth position, has been rising and “speaks Midwestern talk and Midwestern values” very well in Iowa, being from Minnesota, another midwestern state. Others in the race include entrepreneur AndrewYang, billionaire Tom Steyer, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and, another billionaire, Michael Bloomberg.

Zogby, who worked on Bloomberg’s campaign for New York City mayor, believes the former mayor needs to watched. His approach might look unorthodox, he said, “but after the complete lack of orthodoxy in 2016 , where we used to say anything can happen but now, we say, well, anything did happen, Mike Bloomberg can go all the way”.