Elizabeth Warren trails Joe Biden by 7 points, according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of the 2020 Democratic presidential field, reflecting the Massachusetts senator’s emergence as a chief rival to the former vice president from the Left.
The poll, released Thursday, found Biden with 26% support among likely Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers nationally, while Warren garnered 19% support. California Sen. Kamala Harris and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders tied at 13%, with South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg getting 7% support.
Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke and tech businessman Andrew Yang each received 2% support, and every other candidate in the 26-person field had 1% or 0% support.
While the poll shows five candidates in the top tier, only 12% of respondents said that they made up their minds on who to vote for in 2020, suggesting that there is room for fluctuation in the poll numbers. Harris was cited as the top second-choice pick, the top candidate that voters wanted to hear more about, and the candidate that most impressed voters during the first round of Democratic primary debates in June.
The poll counts as a qualifying poll for inclusion in the September Democratic presidential primary debates, which require at least 2% support in four approved polls released between June 28, 2019 and Aug. 28 plus at least 130,000 individual donors.
O’Rourke and Yang have each reached the donor threshold, but O’Rourke will need at least one more 2% poll, and Yang needs at least three more 2% polls in addition to today’s poll to qualify, according to a Politico analysis. Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, and Buttigieg already appeared to have qualified for the September debates before the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.
The poll reached 400 Democratic primary voters over July 7-9 and has a margin of error of 4.9%. It did not test support for billionaire Tom Steyer, who announced his candidacy on the last day of the poll.
The poll’s release comes as the six-month mark closes in on the Iowa caucuses, set for Feb. 3, 2020.
