Poll: Biden leads Sanders by 22 points

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads his closest competitor in the field of Democratic presidential candidates by 22 percentage points, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released Monday.

In the June 14-15 survey, Biden garnered support from 35 percent of registered voters who identified as Democrats or as independents who favored the party. The next closest candidate was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), at 13 percent.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) came in third with 7 percent, followed by former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) at 6 percent, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) at 5 percent and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 4 percent.

New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker drew 3 percent support, while former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro was named by 2 percent.

All other candidates who were named by poll participants received 1 percent support or less. Several were not named by any participants: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska).

Biden’s 35 percent matches the support rating he received in a Hill-HarrisX survey conducted June 1-2. In that poll, Sanders had 16 percent support.

Biden was slightly more popular among male respondents than among female voters in the most recent survey, with 37 percent of men favoring him compared to 32 percent of women.

For Sanders, 16 percent of men supported him, compared to support from 10 percent of women.

Harris received more support from female respondents than males, with 8 percent of women backing her compared to 2 percent of men.

Biden had support from 22 percent of Hispanic respondents, compared with 15 percent for Sanders 13 percent for O’Rourke and 10 percent for Harris. In the previous poll, Biden and Sanders were tied among Latino respondents at 25 percent.

The former vice president fared much better among African-American voters, with 42 percent support. None of the other candidates received double-digit support. In the previous three surveys, Biden was the overwhelming favorite among black respondents.

Biden has also maintained an edge among white Democratic voters, at 36 percent. Sanders was next at 12 percent, followed by 9 percent for Warren.

The June 14-15 Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among a statistically representative sample of 424 respondents who identified themselves as registered voters who were Democrats or independents who favored the Democratic Party. It has a sampling margin of error of 4.8 percent and a 95 percent confidence level.

—Matthew Sheffield