Vice President Joe Biden surged to the top in a latest poll released Wednesday.
In a new Bloomberg Politics poll of Democratic voters and Democratically leaning independent voters, Biden earned 25 percent of support — even though he has not yet announced his intentions for the presidency.
This amount of support is enough to put him in second place, behind Hillary Clinton (33 percent) and ahead of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (24 percent). Other candidates polled within the margin of error.
In terms of net favorability, Biden tops the other Democratic nominees, polling at 80 percent to 18 percent. Clinton polls at 70 percent to 25 percent, followed by Sanders’ 56 percent to 9 percent. More than a third of those polled (45 percent) are not sure what they think of Sanders, a socialist.
Biden also garners support for a potential 2016 bid: 47 percent say they want the vice president to run, while 37 say no and 15 precent are not sure.
Regardless, Biden’s intentions remain hard to figure out.
“I mean, I’ve just got to be certain that if I do this, I’m able to look you in the eye and everyone else and say I’m giving all my passion, all my, all my energy and will not be distracted. And secondly, equally as important, the other piece is: Is this moment, is this the best thing for the family as a unit?” Biden said in an interview with America magazine published Monday.
The poll of 375 Democrats and Democratic leaners nationwide was conducted Sept. 18-21 by Selzer & Co. of Des Moines, Iowa, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
