Joe Biden is bleeding support from voters who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, with a new poll showing 14% do not plan to pull the lever for the presumptive nominee in November.
Within that 14%, according to the Suffolk University/USA Today survey, 4% of voters who supported Sanders in the primary plan to vote for President Trump.
The former vice president is enjoying solid leads over Trump, both nationally and in key battleground states in most recent polls. But this survey suggests Biden is plagued by underlying vulnerabilities, as 61% of Sanders primary voters said they were not excited about supporting the nominee.
Trump is working overtime to exploit this dynamic, insisting in messaging amplified by his supporters that Sanders lost to Biden because the Democratic establishment rigged the primary against him. Sanders, a socialist senator from Vermont, shares Trump’s populist views on international trade and has similarly campaigned against the political and corporate establishments.
“Bernie Sanders is OUT!” Trump tweeted in early April, when Sanders ended his bid after Biden routed him in a series of crucial March primaries. “This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!”
Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday! This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2020
As the presumptive nominee, Biden’s challenge is to energize the liberal base, which includes a significant portion of voters who supported Sanders in the primary or who are attracted to his socialist agenda. The Suffolk University/USA Today poll discovered that 34% of voters who backed Sanders in the primary placed a higher priority on enacting the senator’s agenda than in ousting Trump.
That is a red flag for Biden.
“For now, Joe Biden is sitting pretty with a statistically significant lead over Donald Trump,” Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos said in a statement. “But if too many unenthusiastic Sanders voters decide to stick to their progressive principles and walk away from the table, it might be Donald Trump sitting pretty again — in the Oval Office.”
The survey of 638 voters who supported Sanders in primaries and caucuses in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Massachusetts, Utah, and California was conducted April 18-25. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
