Former Vice President Joe Biden bests other candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary, steady with 32%, followed by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (19%) and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (15%), according to a new poll out Wednesday from Quinnipiac University.
There hasn’t been a significant change in the race since Quinnipiac’s last poll earlier in August. Wednesday is the last day to qualify for the September debate stage, and no candidates qualified because of this poll.
The next top three candidates are California Sen. Kamala Harris (7%), South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (5%) and businessman Andrew Yang (3%). All other candidates got 1% or lower in the poll.
With the exception of the Monmouth University poll released earlier this week – which showed Biden, Warren and Sanders in a virtual tie – Biden’s standing atop the primary field has held steady with about 30% support in polls.
Biden was seen as the most likely to beat President Donald Trump, with 54% of registered voters who said they would support the former vice president in a head-to-head against the President. Almost two in five (38%) said they would support Trump.
This early in the cycle, head-to-head matchups are meant to be viewed as a snapshot of how the electorate is currently feeling, not as a predictor for the future.
All other Democratic presidential candidates who got above 1% in the Quinnipiac poll also bested Trump. Sanders led 53% to 39%, Warren up 52% to 40%, Harris up 51% to 40%, and Buttigieg at about half (49%) to Trump’s 40%.
The Democrats all received above half the vote in the poll (to varying degrees), while Trump was stuck at around two-in-five registered voters who said they’ll support his reelection.
Trump’s approval remains steady: 38% of registered voters approve of the job he’s doing compared to 56% who disapprove. His worst approval is on race relations (32%). More (38%) approve of how he’s handling foreign policy, immigration, trade, and gun policy.
His best approval rating is – as it has been for a long time – on the economy. Slightly under half (46%) approve of how Trump is handling the economy, down a few points in the past months.
Despite Trump’s economic approval remaining constant, perceptions that the economy is doing well are waning. Around three-in-five voters said that the economy is currently excellent or good, down nine percentage points since June this year, when 70% said the same.
This comes after a few indicators showing a possible recession.
Significantly more said the economy is getting worse (37% now, compared to only 23% in June), but much fewer think that Trump’s policies are to blame. Around two in five said Trump’s policies are hurting the economy, only slightly up (four percentage points) since January.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted by telephone August 21 through 26 among a random sample of 1,422 registered voters with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The survey includes 648 Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.
