Those rosier views did not prompt any voters to back a different horse, at least not yet. As he has throughout 2019, former Vice President Joe Biden leads the race, being the first choice of 31 percent of respondents in the latest poll, which was conducted Dec. 20-22 among 7,178 registered voters who indicated they may vote in a Democratic primary or caucus in their state. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held his second-place spot with 21 percent, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (15 percent).Â
No candidate — neither the seven who were on the debate stage nor the nine who were not — saw their first-choice backing change outside the polls’ 1-point margins of error.Â
That includes South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg of Indiana, who faced attacks from Warren over his high-dollar fundraisers and from Klobuchar over a paucity of electoral victories. He remained in fourth place as the first choice of 9 percent of primary voters, 3 points ahead of billionaire and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was not on the debate stage. Buttigieg’s popularity also improved, with 50 percent expressing positive views and 17 percent expressing unfavorable views.Â
While many of the candidates in the field will be encouraged by their showing in the latest survey, it’s a different story for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii). Her widely covered decision to break with House Democrats on Dec. 18 and vote “present” on articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump was met by an 11-point drop in net favorability among Democratic primary voters. With an unfavorable rating of 30 percent and 18 percent expressing positive views of her, Gabbard is clearly the most-disliked candidate in the field.
