2020 Presidential Polls: Even Before He’s Entered The Race, Joe Biden Leads In Key Early State Poll
Joe Biden has not yet announced whether he’s running for president in the 2020 election, but already the former Vice President is leading a poll in a key early state.
Biden remains one of the biggest names in the Democratic Party and was widely considered a contender for the Democratic nomination in the upcoming election, but has yet to announce his intentions for next year. There are signs that he could have wide support should he choose to enter, however. A poll of Democratic candidates from the key early state of South Carolina found that Biden was the most popular pick, trailed by Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Bernie Sanders.
As The State reported, Biden drew 36 percent support in the early poll, a high number especially for such an already crowded field. The poll showed that Biden had a large lead among a key demographic in the state and among Democratic primary voters — African-American voters.
“When we only asked about already declared candidates (not including Sanders who hadn’t yet declared), black voters overwhelmingly supported Booker (38 percent) and Harris (37 percent),” said polling firm chief executive Mike Greenfield. “But with Biden, Sanders (and) Beto in the race, Biden has a clear lead among black voters, with 43 percent.”
While Biden has yet to make any kind of official determination on the race, he has already dropped some heavy hints that he will be running. As the New York Post noted, he made an appearance at the University of Delaware early this week in which he quoted Plato in saying that “one of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors,” with Biden then adding that there was a “consensus” among his family members that they want him to run for president.
Biden went on to say that he was exploring whether he could have a real chance of winning the Democratic nomination, though did not officially announce an exploratory committee.
Former US Vice President Joe Biden says his family is on board with a 2020 run and he's "very close" to making a decision https://t.co/uENWDegYzr pic.twitter.com/pJANIjS5JK
— CNN (@CNN) February 27, 2019
The former Vice President added that he had planned to stay quiet during Donald Trump’s presidency, but felt compelled to speak out after Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who committed violent acts at the rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
“Barack and I agreed we were not going to comment on President Trump’s administration for a year to give him a chance to get set up. We thought we’d do what [President George] W [Bush] did with us. But when Charlottesville happened, I couldn’t remain silent any longer,” Biden said.
