The Democratic presidential primary race is set to fire up in about six months, and one early poll out of New Hampshire has some good news for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., previewing how the contest might differ from 2016.
Per my colleague Al Weaver’s breakdown of responses from the Granite State’s likely Democratic primary voters:
Warren leads with 26 percent support to Biden’s 20 percent. Sanders is in third with 13 percent, while Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., took 8 percent. None of the other Democrats won more than 5 percent support, a group that includes Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
Presented a list without Warren’s name, 25 percent of respondents chose Sanders — but that number dropped to 12.5 percent when the Massachusetts Democrat was added. Biden’s support dropped from almost 30 percent to 20.
This is all made more interesting given that Sanders trounced Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary two years ago, by a margin of 60 to 38 percent. If Warren’s shared appeal with his base is cutting so deeply into Sanders’ support among New Hampshire Democrats, it’s possible he’ll be much less competitive elsewhere as well if he makes another run for the nomination.
The poll also found Republican primary voters would hand President Trump an easy victory should another Republican candidate try to compete with him, preferring the president to Mitt Romney, John Kasich, and Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., by wide margins.
