Sen. Elizabeth Warren holds a 7-point lead over former Vice President Joseph R. Biden in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to a poll released on Thursday.
Ms. Warren of Massachusetts was the top choice of 28% of Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents, followed by Mr. Biden at 21% and Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont at 15%.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, was at 10%, Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California was at 5% and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota was at 3%. No other candidate was above 1%.
“Former Vice President Joe Biden slips, Senator Elizabeth Warren steadies, Senator Bernie Sanders gets his groove back, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg breaks back into double digits,” said Quinnipiac University Polling analyst Mary Snow.
A Quinnipiac survey released just before last week’s debate had Ms. Warren in the lead at 30%, followed by Mr. Biden at 27%, Mr. Sanders at 11% and Mr. Buttigieg at 8%.
Among the 72% of respondents who caught the debate or paid close attention to news coverage about it, 26% said Ms. Warren did the best job, followed by Mr. Buttigieg at 17%, Mr. Biden at 12%, Mr. Sanders at 11% and Ms. Klobuchar at 8%.
Fifteen percent also said Mr. Biden did the worst job at the debate — tops in the field. He was followed by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii at 11%.
“Last week’s debate didn’t help Vice President Joe Biden, who saw his numbers slip to where they were in early July following the first Democratic debate,” Ms. Snow said. “Then, like now, he ranked among candidates doing the worst job in the debate. Later in July, his numbers rebounded. The question remains whether this is a blip or a trend.”
A CNN poll released on Wednesday showed Mr. Biden opening up a 15-point edge on Ms. Warren, his biggest lead in months, though the general trend line of the Real Clear Politics average had showed his advantage narrowing since the spring.
The Quinnipiac survey of 1,587 self-identified registered voters was taken from Oct. 17-21 and includes 713 Democratic voters and independents who lean Democrat. The margin of error for the smaller subsample is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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