Biden leads, Warren and Sanders tied for second in new poll

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the field of Democratic presidential hopefuls, with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) tied for second place, according to a new national poll.

A survey released Friday from NBC News-Survey Monkey finds Biden at 25 percent support, a 9-point lead over Sanders and Warren, who are tied for second place with 16 percent support each. Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) is close behind, with 14 percent support.

{mosads}The NBC News-Survey Monkey online survey was conducted in the two weeks following the first Democratic debate, between July 2 and July 16.

The results are in line with what most other recent polls have found. Biden maintains a significant but not insurmountable lead over the field. Sanders has held steady in the front of the pack of candidates chasing Biden, while Warren and Harris have cemented their standing alongside him as top contenders for the nomination.

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who raised more money in the second quarter than any other candidate, is in fifth place at 8 percent in the poll. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas), whose fundraising fell dramatically this quarter, is at 3 percent, along with Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.). Every other candidate is at 2 percent or less.

The survey also found President Trump’s approval rating at 48 percent, up from 45 percent in September. Fifty-one percent of voters said they disapprove of the job Trump is doing, down from 54 percent.

According to data from Gallup, Trump posted the best average approval rating of his presidency in the second quarter of 2019 at 42.9 percent, beating his previous best of 41.9 percent. The latest Gallup survey found Trump’s approval rating at 44 percent, down from his high of 46 percent in mid-April.

The NBC News-Survey Monkey poll does not fully account for Trump’s latest racial controversy, in which he said four Democratic women of color should “go back” to other countries.

At a reelection rally last night in North Carolina, Trump ramped up his criticism, provoking the crowd to break into a chant of “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a U.S. citizen from Somalia.

However, the poll found that Trump’s focus on the migrant crisis at the southern border may be impacting public opinion. A plurality of voters, 22 percent, said immigration is the most important issue to them, up from 15 percent in the previous survey, followed by 21 percent who said health care and 21 percent who said jobs.

The NBC News-Survey Monkey poll of 13,533 registered voters was conducted online and has a 1.2 percentage point margin of error.