Warren leads first Daily Kos 2020 straw poll

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) leads progressive news website Daily Kos’s first 2020 straw poll, coming days after she made her debut visit to Iowa as a presidential candidate.

In a straw poll of nearly 35,000 Daily Kos members, Warren, a progressive stalwart who first rose to prominence in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, leads the likely crowded Democratic primary field with 22 percent of support.

{mosads}Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) comes in second, with 15 percent, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and former Vice President Joe Biden are close behind, tied with 14 percent each.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who’s considering a second run for the White House, trails in fifth place, with 11 percent, despite being a top pick among members of other progressive groups.

“Modern presidencies aren’t won in rural diners. They’re won by those who best manage their media—social, partisan, and traditional,” Daily Kos writes.

“So who on that list above can do that? Warren, O’Rourke, Sanders, Booker, and Harris have already built that infrastructure. Bernie, however, has a ‘yesterday’s news’ feel to him,” according to the website.

On New Year’s Eve, Warren announced that she was forming an exploratory committee for 2020. Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro has also established one.

Warren traveled to Iowa over the past weekend, packing the rooms of her events and railing against corruption in the Trump administration and calling out big money in politics.

Other progressive groups have conducted straw polls of their members, but this appears to be one of the first that Warren tops.

MoveOn.org’s straw poll in December found O’Rourke narrowly edging out Biden. And in Democracy for America’s December poll, Sanders came in first, while Warren finished in fourth place.

In a Tuesday release of the poll, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas said the group will be conducting its straw poll every two weeks.

“Daily Kos will be running these straw polls every two weeks, and as folks exit and enter the race, the slate of candidates tested in each poll will shift as the field evolves,” Moulitsas said.

“While not a scientific evaluation of preferences, past straw polls on Daily Kos have accurately represented the sentiment of the millions of progressives we reach every day.”