Former Vice President Joe Biden is holding a comfortable lead among a slate of potential Democratic candidates ahead of the presidential election, according to an NPR/PBS poll published Thursday.
Biden holds a high favorability rating among black people (70 percent), white people without a college education (71 percent), and white people with a college education (83 percent). His numbers are sky-high compared to Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California.
Gillibrand’s favorability ratings are underwater among black people while Harris’s numbers are not that much better. Only 7 percent of black people polled said they have a favorable opinion of the New York Democrat. Harris’s favorability ratings among that group are worse than Biden’s.
Gillibrand announced her intent to run for office Tuesday during an appearance on Stephen Colbert.
The survey of 1,023 adults was conducted January 10- 13 by The Marist Poll and sponsored in partnership with NPR and PBS NewsHour. The poll results appear to say more about the distance between Biden and his potential foes than the strengths of the candidates themselves.
Results from the NPR poll come off the heels of a Morning Consult poll in December 2018 showing Biden leading the pack of prospective Democratic nominees in 2020, drawing 26 percent of party support in a mid-November Morning Consult poll. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders followed a close second in the poll, drawing 19 percent among Democrats.
Some Republicans worry that Biden poses the biggest threat to President Donald Trump. Sen. Lindsey Graham, for one, told reporters in December that the former vice president might be what the Democrat Party needs to win in 2020 despite being a flawed candidate.
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