Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has increased her lead over former Vice President Joe Biden to double digits, according to the latest George Washington University poll.
Warren has pushed ahead of both Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in the newest poll released just ahead of Tuesday evening's CNN/The New York Times 2020 Democratic debate. Warren tops the Democratic candidate field with 28 percent of the vote while Sanders comes in second with 21 percent. Biden, who has maintained his status as Democratic front-runner since entering the race in the spring, has fallen to just 18 percent.
The 10 percentage point gap separating Warren and Biden in this most recent George Washington University Politics Poll is significantly wider than a large swath of polls. But the data is indicative of the Massachusetts senator's steady rise to the top of the pack since the beginning of the year. Additional surveys indicate that Warren is holding steady as primary voters' second choice, meaning she is in good position to rise as other candidates drop out of the race.
Additionally, Warren has surged ahead among voters who identify themselves as "liberal" as opposed to steady support among primary voters who are "very liberal." Among self-identifying "liberals," she stands at 33 percent, which is 17 points ahead of Biden and 12 ahead of Sanders.
A Huffington Post/YouGov poll of 1,000 U.S. adults released this week found that Warren, 70, is the only top-three candidate who beats Trump on perceptions of how health impacts their ability to govern. Two-thirds of voters said they believe Warren's physical condition is good enough, a fact she was accused of flaunting during a recent South Carolina campaign stop.
The trio of Warren, Sanders and Biden have long stood far ahead of the Democratic field and fellow challengers. California Senator Kamala Harris and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg each pulled in 5 percent in the poll.
The GW Politics Poll overseen by George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, Political Science Department and Graduate School of Political Management interviewed 600 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters.
As The Washington Post notes of the September 26 surveys, respondents were likely aware of Biden's name in association with the Trump-Ukraine accusations, but not Sanders' recent heart attack.
The Democratic nominating contests begin with the Iowa caucuses on February 2, 2020 and extend through the Washington D.C. primary on June 16. The Democratic National Convention is held in July to finalize the candidate nomination of who will go on to face President Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, in the November general election. In the 2016 presidential election, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received 55.2 percent of the national Democratic primary vote and Bernie Sanders received 43.3 percent.
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Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
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