Elizabeth Warren has surged to the front of the Democratic pack, leading former Vice President Joe Biden by seven points and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 13 points, a Quinnipiac University poll shows.
The survey, released Thursday, finds the Massachusetts senator comfortably in first place among Democratic primary voters, with 28% support. Biden is in second place at 21%, while Sanders comes in at 15%.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the last candidate to earn double-digit support, with the rest of the field receiving 5% or less support from voters.
The latest numbers from Quinnipiac show Warren, 70, extending her lead over her competitors. Another poll from the organization, commissioned earlier this month, had Warren leading Biden, 76, by just 3 points. Sanders, 78, saw a gain of 4 points.
“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.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,587 self-identified registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Much of Warren’s improvements in this poll come from what voters saw as a strong debate performance during the fourth Democratic primary debate earlier this month in Ohio.
“Last week’s debate didn’t help Vice President Joe Biden, who saw his numbers slip to where they were in early July following the first Democratic debate. Then, like now, he ranked among candidates doing the worst job in the debate. Later in July, his numbers rebounded. The question remains whether this is a blip or a trend,” Snow said.
The poll showing Warren leading comes at a pivotal time in the Democratic primary fight. Biden had long been the Democratic establishment favorite, as President Barack Obama’s vice president for eight years and a senator from Delaware for 36 years before that.
A RealClearPolitics average of the polls shows Biden still beating Warren for first place, by 5.5 points at 27.2% support, against her 21.8% support.
