Democrats tend to like the senator from Vermont, but half have no opinion of him, and he's nearly 50 points behind in the nomination race
Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders has served in Congress for nearly a quarter century, first as the state’s only Representative and then as one of its Senators. His career in electoral politics goes back even further to his election as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s largest city, in 1981. He now says he’s running for the Democratic Presidential nomination. But according to the latest Economist/YouGov Poll, all that time in office hasn’t made him especially well-known – not even to Democrats.
Half the public overall – and half of Democrats – have no opinion of Sanders. He represents one of the smallest states in the country, and has yet to get the attention of many Americans.
In contrast, nearly all Democrats have an opinion of Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the only other announced Democratic candidate, and 86% give her a favorable evaluation.
It’s unclear that many Democrats are looking for an alternative to Clinton. In this week’s poll, three in four say they would be satisfied with Clinton as the only Democratic candidate.
Clinton leads three of the more established Republican possibilities, none of whom has announced yet, and leads them in head-to-head horseraces by double digits. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee each get just over a third of registered voters’ support; Clinton scores just under 50%.
Two weeks ago, the three announced Republican candidates fared somewhat better against Clinton.
Among Democrats, Clinton holds a commanding lead over a field which is relatively unknown – with the exception of Vice President Joe Biden. Sanders may be in second place in this week’s poll among registered voters who call themselves Democrats, but the distance between him and Clinton is nearly 50 percentage points.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here.
