Biden’s Still Ahead But Losing Ground Among Democrats

Joe Biden still leads the Democratic presidential pack, but as the campaign season begins in earnest, he has fallen to his lowest level of support to date.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds Biden with 30% support among Likely Democratic Voters, down from 37% in the previous survey conducted at the beginning of December. While Biden has led the Democratic contest all year, he has been unable to grow his support beyond the 39% he earned in January and May. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is a distant second now with 16% support, unchanged from a month ago. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Battling for third place are South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg (12%), Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (11%) and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar (10%). Support for Buttigieg is also unchanged from the previous survey, but Sanders continues to track down from a high of 19% among Democratic voters in October. Klobuchar is new to Rasmussen Reports’ surveying following California Senator Kamala Harris’ withdrawal from the presidential contest.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang earns six percent (6%) support among his fellow Democrats in the latest survey, up from two percent (2%) in September. Eight percent (8%) of Democrats like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) remain undecided.

Among all Likely Voters, it’s Biden (25%), Sanders (12%), Warren (11%), Buttigieg (10%), Yang (9%) and Klobuchar (7%). Fourteen percent (14%) like someone else, and 13% are undecided. This, too, marks little change from early December.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted December 26 and 29, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

With Harris quitting the race, some Democrats are already worrying about the whiteness of the leading presidential hopefuls. Most Democratic voters – and most blacks – agree that it’s important for the party to nominate a person of color or woman this time around, but hope is fading.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of voters say they have been closely following the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, with 44% who are following Very Closely. Eighty-five percent (85%) of Democrats are closely following, including 55% who are following Very Closely.

Among voters following the Democratic contest Very Closely, it’s Biden (26%), Warren (14%), Sanders (12%), Buttigieg and Klobuchar with nine percent (9%) apiece and Yang at eight percent (8%). Fifteen percent (15%) like another candidate, and eight percent (8%) are undecided.

The older the voter, the more closely they are following the Democratic race. Sanders leads among those under 40, but Biden is the first choice of older voters.

Support for Biden is much higher among blacks than it is among whites and other minority voters.

Women voters are more likely than men to prefer another candidate or be undecided.

Even Democrats consider it highly unlikely that the Republican-run U.S. Senate will remove President Trump from office now that he has been impeached by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.

Americans are more optimistic about the year ahead than they have been in a long time. With a presidential election coming in November, it’s interesting to note that Republicans are a lot more enthusiastic about 2020 than Democrats are.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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