Former first lady and former Vice President Joe Biden tied for the Democrats’ favorite 2020 presidential candidate in a poll released on Tuesday.
Twenty-five percent of Democrat voters said that they would either back Obama or Biden for the Democrat nomination, even though neither Democrat has declared their candidacy for president in 2020, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released on Tuesday.
Several polls had Biden leading the early list of Democrat contenders in the past few weeks. One poll released in February found that Biden would serve as a formidable opponent to President Donald Trump–the survey found that Trump would beat everyone but Biden in a 2020 matchup.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), who has declared for the 2020 Democrat nomination, ranks in third place at 12 percent of support. Right behind Harris is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at 11 percent; Sanders announced his candidacy for president on Tuesday.
“Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump,” the democratic socialist wrote in a statement to his supporters on Tuesday. “Our campaign is about transforming our country and creating a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.”
After Sanders, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), billionaire Michael Bloomberg, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) poll in the single-digits.
Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) all received less than six percent.
When factoring in independant voters, Biden beats Obama by one percent, with Biden at 23 percent and Obama at 22 percent.
Molly Murphy, a pollster at Democrat consulting firm ALG Research, said Obama’s popularity results from the fact that she has not decided to run for president.
“Because she’s never been a candidate, she’s never been on the ballot, she’s avoided a certain degree of scrutiny that candidates face. And so she’s all icing for people, it’s all good,” Murphy said.
The survey also found that 12 percent of Independents and Democrats preferred another Democrat candidate, suggesting some dissatisfaction with the current list of Democrat candidates for president.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.