Poll: Joe Biden loses status as most electable Democrat
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images
The share of Democratic primary voters who believe Joe Biden has the best chance out of any 2020 candidate to beat President Trump has dropped to 17%, down 12 points since the New Hampshire primary, according to a Morning Consult national poll.
Why it matters: Biden's electability pitch is widely considered his core appeal as a candidate.
- Biden's competitors, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have faced frequent electability questions surrounding their age, experience and left-wing policies.
- After winning in New Hampshire, Sanders now leads as the most likely candidate to beat Trump at 29%, followed by Michael Bloomberg at 25%. Both surpassed Biden in Morning Consult's post-New Hampshire poll.
Details: Underwhelming performances by Biden in Iowa and New Hampshire have hurt his candidacy. 46% of voters said Biden's showing in New Hampshire made them less likely to vote for him.
- Confidence that Biden is the best candidate to beat Trump among black voters — a key voting bloc for Biden — also fell by 10 points to 21%.
The big picture: In horse-race polling, Sanders has opened up a 10-point lead over Biden in the days since the New Hampshire primary.
- Sanders: 29% (+4)
- Biden: 19% (-3)
- Bloomberg: 18% (+1)
- Buttigieg: 11% (0)
- Warren: 11% (-1)
- Klobuchar: 5% (+3)
Worth noting: National polls have their limitations, since the Democratic primary is organized state by state.
Methodology: Morning Consult conducted the survey with 2,639 likely Democrat voters nationwide. The margin of error is ± 2.
Go deeper: Bloomberg's monopoly, Biden's market crash
