“Three B’s” lead latest poll for 2020 Democrats

Former Vice President Joe Biden is out front in a poll by Quinnipiac University out Thursday, with 29% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters saying they’ll vote for him in the 2020 primary if he runs.

Biden is contemplating a campaign for the White House in 2020, and there is speculation that he is close to entering the presidential field.

He is followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (19%), former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (12%), and Sen. Kamala Harris (8%), according to the Quinnipiac poll.

” Hungry for a candidate to take on President Donald Trump, Democrats and Democratic leaners put the three B’s, Biden, Bernie and Beto , at the top in a race where age, race and gender take a back seat to electability and shared views, ” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Others such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (4%), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (4%), New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (2%), and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (2%) got above the 1% mark.

Buttigieg’s rise is notable, beating his high of 1% in past polling. His supporters tend to be more liberal — 9% of those who identify as ” very liberal ” said they’d support him, according to the poll.

Democrats and Democratic-leaners preferred a younger candidate — 39% said they want a younger nominee, compared to 21% who wanted an older candidate. A little more than a third said it didn’t matter. Only 27% said it was an important factor in their vote in the Democratic primary.

Many more Democratic voters said it didn’t matter if the candidate was a man or a woman — 10% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners said they preferred a man, 26% said they preferred a woman and 59% said it didn’t matter — or if they were white or a person of color (4% preferred a white candidate, 20% preferred a person of color being the nominee, and 69% said it didn’t matter).

Significantly fewer voters said that gender and race were important factors in their votes (12% and 13% respectively).

But Democratic voters were divided when it came to their candidate’s ideology. Almost half (49%) preferred a candidate that is a progressive and slightly fewer (44%) want a candidate who is moderate. A whopping 72% said political ideology is an important factor to their vote.

A majority do want a candidate who would work with the Republicans (52%) as opposed to standing up to them (39%). But when asked if bipartisanship and standing up to Republicans are important factors in their votes, 67% said yes to bipartisanship and 71% said yes to standing up to Republicans.

Slightly more Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters prefer a candidate that most shares their views on issues (51%) versus one that is the most electable (45%), but broad majorities call both of those things important factors in their vote: 87% on shares issue positions and 76% on electability.

Over half of registered voters said they will definitely not vote for President Donald Trump and 30% said they definitely will. Thirteen percent were in the middle and said they’d consider voting for him. Democrats are more unified against the President (95% say they definitely won’t vote for him) than Republicans are in support of him (77% say they’ll definitely vote for him).

Most Republicans and Republican-leaners said they don’t want someone else to run against Trump in the Republicans primary (56%).