With just over 400 days left until the Iowa caucuses (set for Feb. 3, 2020), a recent poll confirmed what many Americans probably already suspected: despite the growing popularity of progressives and Democratic Socialists like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (who won’t be eligible to run for president until 2024), Vice President Joe Biden remains the most popular 2020 presidential contender.
To wit, a CNN/Des Moines Register poll released Saturday showed that former Vice President Joe Biden would likely win the Iowa caucuses if they were held tomorrow. He was followed by Bernie Sanders in second place, and Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke in third.
Here’s Bloomberg:
The poll shows Biden leading among a field of 20 potential candidates, followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke. The poll asked likely caucusgoers who their top choice for president would be among potential candidates for their party’s nomination.
[…]
The Iowa poll found 32 percent of likely caucusgoers prefer Biden, with 19 percent selecting Sanders as their first choice, and O’Rourke at 11 percent. Featured lower in the list of possible Democrats were Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.
Featured lower in the list of possible Democrats were Senators Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker.
Of course, as the last few Republican nominating contests have demonstrated, winning in Iowa, the first contest of the primary season, is no guarantee that a candidate will go on to secure the party’s nomination (though Hillary Clinton won Iowa in 2016 and Barack Obama won it in 2008).
And despite all of the talk about how the Democrats need “new blood” to have a shot at beating Trump, nearly half of poll respondents – 49% – said they would prefer a “seasoned hand”, while 36% favored a “newcomer.”
At 76, Biden is reportedly consulting friends and political allies about whether he is too old to run for president. If elected, he would be 78 years old when taking office, making him the oldest president-elect in US history. Meanwhile, O’Rourke said at a town hall in El Paso, Texas, on Friday that he hadn’t made a decision about whether to seek the presidency, according to the Associated Press.
And coming in at No. 7, former First Lady and once-and-future candidate Hillary Clinton still ranked higher than Michael Bloomberg and Amy Klobucher, which will likely keep Clinton’s dreams of a return to the presidential arena alive – for now, at least.
via RSS https://ift.tt/2Lp2ohe Tyler Durden