Poll: Biden leads Sanders by 19 points nationally

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 19 points in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.

More than half of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents — 54 percent — said they would like to see Biden take the Democratic nomination, while 35 percent said Sanders is their preferred choice to take on President Trump in November.

The poll comes amid a resurgence for Biden, whose candidacy appeared to be in trouble less than two weeks ago. He scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary late last month followed by a series of wins on Super Tuesday that helped him revive his campaign and emerge as the leading moderate alternative to Sanders.

“It’s down to two and looks very much like the Biden resurgence could be a fatal blow to the Sanders revolution,” Tim Malloy, a polling analyst for the Quinnipiac University Poll, said.

Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents also see Biden as the more electable candidate in the primary race, according to the Quinnipiac poll. Eighty percent of respondents said they see Biden as at least somewhat likely to defeat Trump in the November general election. 

Respondents still see Sanders as a viable candidate against Trump, with 61 percent saying that he would be at least somewhat likely to defeat the Republican incumbent. 

The Quinnipiac poll is the latest showing Biden reclaiming his spot as the primary race’s front-runner nationally. A CNN survey released earlier on Monday showed the former vice president leading Sanders by 16 points. 

And a handful of surveys from states with primary elections on Tuesday also show Biden in the lead. A Monmouth University poll put Biden ahead of Sanders by 15 percentage points in Michigan. And polling from the progressive firm Data For Progress showed Biden leading Sanders in both Mississippi and Missouri, two other states with primaries on Tuesday.

The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 559 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters from March 5-8. It has a margin of error of +/-4.2 percentage points.