The poll, which was conducted by The Des Moines Register and CNN, had Biden as the top choice for 27 percent of respondents, leading all candidates. Though Biden’s advisers have signaled that he intends to run for president, he has yet to announce his candidacy. Sanders, who kicked off his campaign recently in New York City, was the top choice for 25 percent of those asked.
Poll numbers have fallen sharply, however, for the other major holdout: former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who lost a Senate bid in Texas in 2018 and could announce his candidacy in the coming weeks. Only 5 percent of likely caucusgoers now call him their first choice for president — down from 11 percent in December.
The Iowa caucuses will be held in early February 2020.
The results signal how Biden and Sanders, two longtime politicians on opposite ends of the party’s ideological spectrum, are entering the race with great familiarity to voters. It remains to be seen if that will translate to hardened support, particularly in one of the largest, most wide-open and diverse Democratic primary fields in history.
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The next closest figure to Biden and Sanders, according to the poll, was Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who was among the first to announce her presidential candidacy. Warren was the top choice for 9 percent of respondents, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who was favored by 7 percent of respondents and had soaring favorability ratings.
Other candidates — including Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — have struggled to make an imprint, the poll found.
The poll also asked respondents about their policy priorities, offering a hint of the political leanings of the Democratic electorate as the party wrestles with its ideological core. Progressive ideas such as raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, the bold climate action known as the Green New Deal, and a “Medicare for all” health care system all enjoyed widespread support among likely caucusgoers.
This comes even as most voters preferred Biden, who has billed himself as a moderate opposed to the Democrats’ leftward lurch.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.