Democrats weighing several presidential contenders for 2020 support

April 19, 2019, 3:00 PM GMT+0

Senator Bernie Sanders leads among Democrats under the age of the 30

With nine months to go before the first votes are cast in Democratic primaries and caucuses, all Democratic voters can do is think about the prospects. Some candidates are better-known than others. And with most Democratic voters not fixed on a single choice, there are likely to be many shifts of opinion between now and February 3, the scheduled date for the Iowa Caucuses.

Democratic voters in the latest Economist/YouGov Poll are thinking about their options. Most are considering giving their vote to several candidates. As of now, only 27% say they are only thinking about one person. That group, like Democratic voters overall, place former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at the top. Relatively few appear to be committed to any of the other candidates.

California Senator Kamala Harris and former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke do marginally better with those thinking about supporting only a single candidate (as befits their early fundraising success), but other candidates are not far behind.

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders lead Democrats' presidential considerations for 2020 primaries and caucuses, O'Rourke jumps ahead among decided votersAnd when the entire set of possible voters think about candidates, other names come into play. 28% of Democratic voters currently are considering two or three candidates, and a third are thinking about even more. But the overall numbers are telling: the leaders, Biden and Sanders, are being considered by less than half of Democratic primary voters, Harris and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are being considered by a third of voters, followed by South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and O’Rourke, with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker close behind.

Buttigieg is less well-known among Democrats than O’Rourke is, but Democratic voters are equally likely to say they are considering each of them. Buttigieg does especially well with senior citizens, the group least likely to support Sanders. Sanders does best (as he did in 2016) with Democratic voters under 30.

8% of Democratic voters say they aren’t considering any of the candidates on the list. Not surprisingly, three-quarters of them want other candidates to enter the contest. But for some, it may not matter. 19% in this small group say they will vote to re-elect President Trump.

See the full toplines and tables results here

Photo: Getty