White House Watch: Biden Bests Trump in Early Matchup
Former Vice President Joe Biden tops President Trump in Rasmussen Reports’ first biweekly White House Watch presidential race tracking poll.
The national telephone and online survey finds that Biden, the leading contender so far for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, earns 49% support among Likely U.S. Voters to Trump’s 44%. Seven percent (7%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Biden, a longtime U.S. senator from Delaware before becoming Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008, picks up 79% support among his fellow Democrats. Trump has identical backing (79%) from Republicans. But Biden also has a 48% to 39% advantage among voters not affiliated with either major party.
Given the large number of candidates expected to enter the race for next year’s Democratic nomination, Rasmussen Reports has opted to run a series of matchups over two-week cycles as the contest continues to develop. These longer cycles mean the matchup findings will be based on 5,000 respondents rather than the usual 1,000 for our regular surveys, and they lower the margin of error.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 5,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 17-21 and March 24-28, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 1.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Biden leads the pack of Democratic presidential hopefuls so far, but in part that’s because he has higher name recognition than most of his rivals. Most Voters say there should be a ceiling on how old a presidential candidate can be, and they favor a limit that would exclude Biden and Trump.
Biden who has sought the Democratic presidential nomination unsuccessfully three times before is the clear favorite among women, those under 40, blacks and other minority voters.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of all voters have a favorable opinion of Biden, while 40% view him unfavorably. This includes 24% with a Very Favorable opinion and 22% with a Very Unfavorable one.
Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Democrats and 52% of unaffiliated voters regard the former vice president favorably. Sixty-six percent (66%) of Republicans do not.
While more than 10 prominent Democrats are already in the race for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination, Democratic voters remain closely divided over whether a lot of candidates is a good thing.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.
The survey of 5,000 Likely Voters was conducted on March 17-21 and March 24-28, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 1.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Related Articles
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.
