Biden is top choice for climate-minded 2020 voters: Poll

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the top choice for president among likely Democratic voters who are focused on the climate, according to a new poll.

The online poll, released Monday as a collaboration between the Sierra Club and Morning Consult, limited its results to voters who said candidates’ plans for the climate are an important factor in their vote. 

While Biden would be the top choice for 37 percent of climate-minded voters, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) came in second and third with 19 percent and 15 percent, respectively. 

The results echo other national polls of Democrats, which have largely found Biden far ahead of Sanders and Warren, with the senators in a tough fight for second place.

A number of candidates have unveiled plans to combat climate change, but many of them did not rank highly in the poll.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who has made climate change the cornerstone of his campaign and released his fourth climate proposal on Monday, was the top choice for just 1 percent of those polled. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), another candidate who presented a climate plan early in his campaign, polled at 4 percent. 

Biden was one of the more recent candidates to roll out a climate platform, announcing a $5 trillion plan earlier this month. Warren has introduced a public lands package and a green manufacturing plan that both touch on climate issues. Sanders has not announced a major climate plan.

Though Warren ranked third overall in the poll, she polled the highest as voters’ second choice, followed by a tie between Sanders and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). 

The poll also asked whether the Democratic Party should hold a climate-focused debate, and 85 percent of respondents answered yes. The party has said it will not hold a single-issue debate.

The poll was based on a sample of 838 people and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.