Biden tops Sanders by 5 points nationally: Pew survey

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a 5-point advantage over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Democratic presidential race, according to an exhaustive national survey from the Pew Research Center.

The Pew survey of 5,861 registered Democrats finds Biden in the lead at 26 percent support, followed by Sanders at 21 percent and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 16 percent. Rounding out the 2020 field are former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 7 percent, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at 5 percent, businessman Andrew Yang at 3 percent and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) at 2 percent.

The Democratic Party is split almost evenly between self-described moderates and self-described liberals, pollsters found. Biden leads Sanders, 26 to 21 percent, among moderate Democrats, while Sanders and Warren are effectively tied among the liberal set. Sanders, however, leads Warren by 8 points among those who view themselves as “very liberal.”

Sanders also has a substantial lead with young people, taking 40 percent support among voters between the ages of 18 and 29, compared to Warren, who runs a distant second place at 17 percent.

Biden mops up among voters over the age of 50, posting a 20-point advantage over both Sanders and Warren.

Black Democrats continue to support Biden in large numbers. He takes 36 percent support among African Americans. Sanders is in second place at 13 percent, while Warren clocks in at 9 percent.

Biden and Sanders are tied at the top among Latinos, with each registering 22 percent support, followed by Warren at 11.

Biden, Sanders and Warren are effectively tied among white voters overall.

The survey shows Biden and Sanders are the top choices among male voters. But Biden has a clear lead among women at 26 percent, followed by Sanders at 19 percent and Warren at 16 percent.

Turning to the general election, 73 percent of Democrats said they’re certain to vote for the Democratic nominee, while only 59 percent of Republicans said they’re certain to vote for President Trump.

However, Republicans are far more confident that Trump will win. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans said Trump will definitely or probably win reelection, compared to just 43 percent of Democrats who said the same about their eventual nominee.

The Pew Research Center survey was conducted from Jan. 6 to 19. The sample of Democratic voters nationwide has a 2.6 percentage point margin of error. The sample of 12,638 voters from both parties has a 1.3 percentage point margin of error.