Biden, Warren lead Sanders in Nevada: poll

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the Democratic primary field in the early-voting state of Nevada, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is climbing fast, according to a new survey.

The latest survey from Monmouth University Poll released Wednesday finds Biden polling strongly in Nevada, with 36 percent support.

Warren is alone in second place at 19 percent support, making it the first early-voting state survey to find her with a clear lead on Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is in third place at 13 percent support.

{mosads}South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg is at 7 percent support, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) at 6 percent.

The survey is more good news for Warren, whose net favorability rating is the second best in the Democratic field behind only Biden, while Sanders has the worst favorability rating of the top five candidates. 

Biden’s net favorability rating is positive by 65 points (78 percent favorable to 13 percent unfavorable), followed by Warren at 59 (70 percent-11 percent), Harris at 58 (67 percent-9 percent), Buttigieg at 48 (56 percent-8 percent) and Sanders at 45 (65 percent-20 percent).

Nevada, which is third in line to vote in the Democratic nominating process, has largely been ignored by the candidates, who have spent most of their time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

But Warren was the first candidate to make significant investments in staff and infrastructure in the state.

Warren was the first to hire staff there back in January and she still has the largest campaign team in the state.

The Monmouth survey is the latest to find momentum behind Warren, who is challenging Sanders to be the party’s progressive standard-bearer.

A straw poll from the progressive website Daily Kos released on Wednesday similarly found Warren surging past Sanders in a survey of grass-roots liberals.

But both Warren and Sanders still have a long way to go to catch Biden, who takes 47 percent support among Nevada Democrats who consider themselves moderate or conservative, compared to 11 percent for Warren and 9 percent for Sanders.

Biden also leads Warren 31 percent to 24 percent among Nevada Democrats who consider themselves somewhat liberal, followed by Buttigieg at 12 percent and Sanders at 8 percent.

Among very liberal Democrats in Nevada, Warren is at 27 percent support followed by Sanders at 26 percent, Biden at 19 percent and Harris and Buttigieg at 7 percent apiece.

Biden has a healthy lead among Latino voters in the state with 27 percent support, followed by Sanders at 19 percent and Warren at 11 percent.

The Monmouth University survey of 370 likely Democratic caucus voters in Nevada was conducted between June 6 and June 11 and has a 5.1 percentage point margin of error.