Poll: Old White Men Have Double-Digit Lead In Democratic Primary

A new poll by Morning Consult shows that former vice president Joe Biden and Democrat-in-name-only Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lead Democratic preferences for president. The two old white men lead the pack of 19 named candidates and “someone else” by double-digit margins.

Biden, who has not yet decided whether he will run for president, is at the top of the poll with the support of 31 percent of registered Democrats. Only Sanders, with 27 percent, comes close.

Kamala Harris was the only other candidate to garner more than 10 percent support in the poll. The California senator scored 11 percent support.

Another four candidates received enough support to measure larger than a statistical blip. Elizabeth Warren scored seven percent support, Beto O’Rourke clocked in with six percent, Corey Booker garnered four percent, and Amy Klobuchar commanded three percent. The poll’s margin of error was one percent. Three percent preferred “someone else.”

It is interesting to note that the two top candidates for the Democratic nomination are straight white men, a demographic that ranks at the bottom of the Democratic intersectional coalition. Despite a number of ethnic and female candidates, more than half of Democratic voters lean toward one of the two elder statesmen of the party rather than the newcomers.

The poll also asked about second choices and both Biden and Sanders ranked high on this question as well. More Biden voters preferred Sanders as a second choice (28 percent) than any other candidate and Sanders voters returned the favor with 29 percent picking Biden as their Plan B. In general, more voters picked Biden as a backup candidate.

In the Republican primary, the poll found that 58 percent of Republican voters strongly supported President Trump’s nomination. Nineteen percent professed lukewarm support for Trump’s re-election while 20 percent preferred another candidate.

Polling has indicated that President Trump has a virtual lock on the Republican nomination while Joe Biden is the Democratic candidate to beat if he decides to run. Although Biden lacks the demographic credentials of Harris or the populist appeal of Sanders, he does have one quality that would be very helpful in the campaign against Trump: Biden is seen as a moderate choice and is already building support of crossover Republicans who are unhappy with President Trump.

Originally published on The Resurgent