Poll: Harris, Warren climb as Biden maintains lead

Former Vice President Joe Biden maintained a healthy lead over the Democratic primary field, though Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) posted big gains in the latest Monmouth University poll.

The survey finds Biden at 33 percent support, up from 27 percent lasts month. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been on a steady decline, falling from 25 percent in March to 20 percent in April and 15 percent in the latest survey.

Harris has moved into third place with 11 percent support, up from 8 percent in April, while Warren is close behind at 10 percent, up from 6 percent last month.{mosads}

South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg has fallen by 2 points, to 6 percent support. But another female candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), has tripled her support, rising from 1 percent last month to 3 percent in May.

About half of the Democrats surveyed in the Monmouth poll come from states that will vote by Super Tuesday on March 3, 2020, and the women in the race fare even better among these early-voting states.

When the poll is narrowed to potential early voters, Biden’s support falls to 26 percent, followed by Sanders and Harris at 14 percent each. Rounding out the field are Warren at 9 percent, Buttigieg at 6 percent and Klobuchar at 5 percent.

All told, the six women running for president combine for 27 support, up from 16 percent in the prior survey.

“Women are commanding a larger slice of Democratic support than they were a few weeks ago and we are seeing bumps in their individual voter ratings,” said Monmouth University pollster Patrick Murray. “We can’t parse out the exact reasons from this one poll, but recent efforts by certain states to restrict access to abortion services may be playing a role in the closer look these candidates are getting right now.”

Biden still has the best favorability in the field, but the women in the race have become more popular in the past month.

Warren is known by 88 percent of Democratic voters, with 60 percent having a favorable view of her against only 14 percent who view her unfavorably. That’s up from a 51-19 split in the prior survey.

Harris is known by 82 percent of Democratic voters, with 58 percent holding a favorable view and 9 percent viewing her unfavorably. In the prior survey, Harris’s favorability rating was 50 percent positive and 10 percent negative.

The Monmouth University survey of 334 registered Democrats was conducted between May 15 and May 20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percentage points.