Joe Biden holds a commanding lead in South Carolina a bit over three months out from its Feb. 29 Democratic primary, according to a new poll.
The former vice president, 76, whose campaign has been open about the prospect it could get trounced in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3 and New Hampshire primary on Feb. 11, leads the 2020 Democratic primary field by 20 percentage points, with 33% support from likely voters, a new Quinnipiac University survey found. His closest rivals are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 70, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, who have 13% and 11% of the vote respectively. Yet 18% of respondents remain undecided about their top choice for the presidential nomination.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, attracts 6% support, Quinnipiac University reports, noting less than 1% of that was from black Democrats. He is trailed by hedge fund manager Tom Steyer at 5% and Andrew Yang at 4%. Black candidates California Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker earn only 3% and 2% of the vote in a primary electorate influenced heavily by its majority black constituency.
“Unlike tight races in Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina has a clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary. Former Vice President Joe Biden has broad based appeal, with particularly strong leads among black and moderate/conservative voters,” the university’s polling analyst Mary Snow said.
Snow added newly announced White House hopeful Deval Patrick, 63, another black contender, was struggling with name recognition in “the First in the South” state.
“Nearly 8 in 10 likely voters say they haven’t heard enough about Patrick to form an opinion of him. More likely voters are familiar with Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor contemplating a run, as roughly 5 in 10 haven’t heard enough — but voters that have an opinion view him more unfavorably than favorably,” she said.
Quinnipiac University conducted the poll of 768 likely South Carolina Democratic primary voters from Nov. 3 to Nov. 17 via landlines and cellphones for a margin of error of plus or minus 4.8 percentage points. Although this is the first survey the firm has put in the field in South Carolina, its results follow the general trend of public opinion research into the early-voting state. Biden has a narrower 5.2 percentage point advantage over Warren, Sanders, and Buttigieg. The top-tier candidates record 26%, 20.8%, 17.8%, and 8% support.
