Former Vice President Joe Biden enjoys a double-digit polling lead over his top rivals in the Democratic presidential primary, according to a new survey that further shores up his front-runner status in the race to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.
A CNN poll conducted by SSRS and released Tuesday shows that 29 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters surveyed back Biden, while 15 percent support for Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders and 14 percent support for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and California Sen. Kamala Harris are tied for the poll’s fourth-place slot, with 5 percent each.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke ranks fifth with 3 percent. He is followed by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, each with 2 percent. All other Democratic White House aspirants achieved 1 percent support or less in the survey.
The CNN survey further expands Biden’s lead over his chief opponents for the Democratic nomination following a handful of misstatements and verbal gaffes in recent weeks that provoked renewed questions about his readiness to challenge Trump and his viability in a general election, one of the Biden campaign’s principal selling points.
The CNN poll’s results also showed Harris backsliding somewhat following a galvanizing performance in the first primary debate two months ago. She suffered a 12-point decrease in support compared to another survey by the network in late June.
The CNN poll was conducted via telephone from August 15-18, surveying 1,001 respondents.
The margin of sampling error for total respondents is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine