A new poll confirms former vice president Joe Biden has a better chance of denying Donald Trump reelection as president compared to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the current frontrunner in the nomination race. Poll after poll has shown Democrats strongly united behind one common goal -- defeating Trump. This also means electability is the top trait Democrats want in their nominee, while a nominee that agrees with their points of view come second.
A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows Biden the more electable. Biden will beat Trump by 9 points nationally (50% to 41%) and by seven points (50% to 43%) in battleground states. Sanders will also defeat Trump, 48% to 42%, among registered voters. But when the electorate was narrowed to the 10 states that will likely decide 2020, Sanders's lead over Trump was slashed in half (48% to 45%).
These states had the closest margins of victory in 2016 presidential election. That 3-point gap was within the margin of error. These 10 battleground states are Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, Maine, North Carolina and Arizona.
Sanders is also way behind Biden among swing voters. This segment of the electorate is voters that switched to Democratic House or Senate candidates in the 2018 midterms after voting for Trump in 2016. Biden beat Trump by 12 points (51% to 39%) among these voters. These swing voters helped Democrats win 41 seats formerly held by Republicans and regain control of the House in 2018. Sanders beat Trump by 4 points (48% to 44%) among swing voters.
On the other hand, Sanders remains strong among Democratic primary voters. He's got a 78% favorable rating, which is the same as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Biden. The Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that 27% of Democrats say Sanders is their first choice for the nomination, followed by Biden at 21%. Warren stands at 18%, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg at 14%, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg at 10%. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is at 4%, California billionaire Tom Steyer at 2 percent and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) at 1%. Steyer announced his withdrawal from the race after South Carolina.
Within the Democratic primary electorate, Sanders led among 18-to-29-year-olds (by 22 points), 30-to-44-year-olds (by 23 points) and Latinos (by 7 points). These demographic segments helped Sanders win more votes than his rivals in the early nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada.
Surprisingly, the Yahoo News/YouGov poll reveals Sanders in a statistical tie with Biden among likely African American primary voters (31% to 30%), suggesting he's making inroads into Biden's core constituency.
