Former Vice President Joe Biden leads ahead with twice the support from those likely to vote in a Democratic primary compared to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders pulling in second, the latest October poll shows.
Bucking the trend seen in a wide swath of national polls, the Harvard CAPS/Harris national poll recorded between October 29-31 shows Biden far ahead of Sanders and Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary. The poll, which questioned a national sample of U.S. adult voters about who they are "most likely to vote for in a Democratic primary," found Biden with 33 percent of support compared to Sanders with 18 percent and Warren at 15 percent. Biden, Sanders and Warren have all traded off the top spot in nationwide and state-by-state polls of likely Democratic primary voters in recent weeks.
Among Democrats and Independents combined, Biden still holds a 10 percentage point lead over Sanders, with 25 to the Vermont senator's fifteen. Warren again comes in third with 12 percent of support among the two voter bases.
The trio of front-runner Democratic candidates remains far ahead of all other candidates, with California Senator Kamala Harris trailing in fourth place at just 5 percent. South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg holds 4 percent of support and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker tied Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar with 3 percent apiece.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris national poll found that when U.S. adult voters across all political affiliations were asked, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has not announced she is running, comes in second place just ahead of Sanders. Biden is still barely atop that poll, but is neck and neck with Clinton at 11 percent.
But a New York Times/Siena College poll conducted the week before from October 25-30 finds Warren atop a close Iowa caucus race. When asked which Democrat is their first choice in the February Iowa caucuses, Warren leads with 22 percent, followed by Sanders at 19 percent, Buttigieg at 18 percent and Biden with 17 percent.
As The New York Times national political correspondent Alex Burns noted of the poll on Friday, Biden's support draws overwhelmingly from older voters. Among Iowa adults over the age of 65, Biden is the clear front-runner. But among voters under the age of 45, Biden holds only 2 percent of the vote.
Klobuchar, Harris and Andrew Yang all hover just below 5 percent in the Iowa caucus poll. Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who dropped out of the race this week, struggled to gather more than 2 percent of support in the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris survey gathered responses from 1,810 nationally registered voters.
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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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