A new poll of likely California Democratic primary voters ranks Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as first among primary candidates with 26% support, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 19%, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 18%, and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at 14%.
The Hoover Institution/Stanford University Bill Lane Center poll was conducted in partnership with YouGov largely before the results of the South Carolina primary, which Biden won decisively, became known on Saturday. California has an open primary, so registered Republicans can vote for Democrats if they choose. President Trump faces only token opposition in the GOP primaries.
Sixty-five percent of likely voters indicated that beating Trump was most important to them when selecting a candidate to support in the Tuesday primary — more so than choosing a candidate whose policies they agreed with. Every Democrat in the race beat Trump in a head-to-head matchup in the state. This is consistent with the results of the 2016 election, when Hillary Clinton beat Trump with 61.7% of the California vote, taking all 55 Electoral College votes.
Sixty-three percent said they believed the country was heading in the wrong direction, while 44% of people said they heard or read something in the news that made them angry multiple times a day. In line with this dissatisfaction, 30% of respondents chose former first lady Michelle Obama, who is not an elected official and has never run for office, as the overwhelming favorite to be the vice presidential nominee.
Thirty percent of respondents disapproved of the job Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing, compared with the 28% who strongly approved. The GOP is positioning itself to take advantage of this by deploying staffers to California in a bid to pick up House seats in November.
First lady Melania Trump will headline a Beverly Hills fundraiser on March 18. The president went west in February, hitting a high-dollar Rancho Mirage fundraiser hosted by Oracle chief Larry Ellison.
The Golden State poll surveyed 1,507 California registered voters online between Feb. 26-28. The margin of error is ± 3.1%.
