Warren opens up 7-point lead over Biden nationally: poll

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has opened up a 7-point lead in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Twenty-eight percent of Democrats and independent voters who lean Democratic say they intend to support Warren, while 21 percent say they will back former Vice President Joe Biden and 15 percent say they’ll support Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the only other candidate to break double digits, coming in at 10 percent.

{mosads}While Warren’s support slipped 2 percentage points since earlier this month, Biden fell 6 points and Sanders added 4 points from the last poll.

“Former Vice President Joe Biden slips, Senator Elizabeth Warren steadies, Senator Bernie Sanders gets his groove back, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg breaks back into double digits,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Mary Snow. 

Warren’s lead is buoyed by advantages among some of her key demographics: She has a 33-point lead among voters who identify as “very” liberal, a 5-point lead among whites, a 15-point lead among those with a college degree and a 7-point lead among voters between the ages of 18 and 34. 

Biden, meanwhile, holds a 19-point lead among voters who identify as moderate or conservative, an 8-point lead among men and those without college degrees and a whopping 38-point lead among black voters.

Warren also appears to be capitalizing on her “I have a plan for that” playbook, with 30 percent of voters saying she has the best ideas. Twenty percent of respondents said the same about Sanders, while 15 percent felt that way about Biden. 

Despite Biden’s overall drop, he is still viewed as the candidate with the best shot at beating President Trump, with 42 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning votes saying he has the best chance of unseating the president, compared with 20 percent for Warren and 14 percent for Sanders. 

The latest poll is one of several showing Warren atop the 2020 Democratic primary, with Biden and Sanders jostling for second place. However, the survey still shows that Biden’s electability argument could appeal to voters as he campaigns across the country and says he will beat Trump “like a drum.”

The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 713 Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic from Oct. 17 to 21 and has a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.