Poll: Biden leads Democratic primary field

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the sprawling field of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, according to a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill,.

The poll found that 35 percent of Democratic voters are most likely to vote for Biden in the Democratic primaries should he jump in the race. That is more than twice the number of voters who pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as their top pick.

The survey results are largely in line with others showing Biden and Sanders as the early leaders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, which now includes more than 15 candidates.

While Biden has yet to enter the contest, he’s expected to make a decision in the coming weeks. But Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, said that Biden’s current absence from the race leaves the primary field in uncertainty.

“The Democratic horserace remains in flux with no clear leader and awaiting the entry of the so far absent front runner,” Penn said. “Will he go up if he comes in? He should if he is going to get on track for a win.”

Coming in third place in the survey was former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) at 7 percent followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in fourth at 6 percent among Democratic voters. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) placed fifth with 5 percent saying they are most likely to cast their primary vote for her.

Even when Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, is factored into the field of primary contenders, Biden and Sanders take the top two spots with 26 percent and 18 percent support respectively. Clinton, meanwhile, took 11 percent, the poll found.

Clinton, who has maintained a relatively low profile since her 2016 loss to President Trump, never made any serious preparations for a 2020 run and said earlier this month that she would not pursue a third run for the Democratic nomination.

Among all registered voters surveyed, the Democratic primary field appears to spark little enthusiasm. Only 36 percent of respondents said that the current lineup of candidates is “impressive,” while 64 percent said the field is “underwhelming,” according to the poll.

Voters also appear to be split on whether one of the current Democratic contenders has a good shot of defeating Trump in 2020. Forty-nine percent said that one of the party’s candidates would have a “strong chance of winning,” while 51 percent said that they would have “little chance of winning.”

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll online survey of 1,437 registered voters was conducted from March 25-26. Of that, 536 self-identified Democratic voters were asked about their candidate preference in the party’s primary field.

The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and The Harris Poll. The Hill will work with Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll throughout 2019.

Full poll results will be posted online later this week. The Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll survey is an online sample drawn from the Harris Panel and weighted to reflect known demographics. As a representative online sample, it does not report a probability confidence interval