Warren, Booker, Castro see favorability jump after first Democratic debate: poll

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as well as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, saw the clearest gains in their favorable ratings after the first night of NBC’s two-night Democratic primary debate.

In a set of two polls from Morning Consult and FiveThirtyEight, one taken before Wednesday’s first round of debating and one taken afterwards, Warren, Castro and Booker both saw considerable gains in their favorable ratings, while their unfavorable ratings barely moved.

{mosads}Warren, who went into Wednesday’s debate with a favorable rating of 63.4 percent, is now viewed favorably by 72 percent of the Democratic electorate, according to the polls.

Booker, who has trailed Warren and other front-runners in the Democratic primary since his announcement earlier this year, saw his favorable rating tick up more than 10 points, from 47 percent to 57.4 percent, according to the polls.

Castro, also one of the lesser-known candidates before Wednesday’s forum, saw his favorable rating rise from 29.3 percent to 47.4 percent.

Other candidates also saw double-digit gains in their favorable ratings following last night’s debate, including Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), but those candidates largely saw concurrent gains to their unfavorable ratings as well.

Booker, by comparison, saw his unfavorable ratings rise by just 2.7 percentage points, according to the polls, while Warren’s rose by just half a point. Castro’s rose the most, 3.6 points, but that still was eclipsed by his double-digit gain in his favorable rating Wednesday night.

Morning Consult–FiveThirtyEight’s first poll was conducted from June 19 to June 26 among 7,150 likely Democratic voters, and had a margin of error of 1 percentage point. The second poll was conducted June 26–27 among 1,233 respondents who responded to the first poll, 678 of whom watched round 1 of the debates. The margin of error for the second poll was 3 percentage points.