Poll: Joe Biden Leads Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts

Democrat frontrunner Joe Biden (D) is leading fellow candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) in her own state of Massachusetts, according to a Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released Tuesday.

The former vice president has been the clear frontrunner even prior to his official campaign announcement. He is being trailed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is in a distant second, and Warren, who is seeing a steady rise in support. A Morning Consult poll published Monday shows Warren garnering 11 percent support– a four percent jump since April 21.

However, a recent Boston Globe poll shows Biden dominating Warren in Massachusetts by 12 points.

Biden leads in the state with 22 percent support. While Warren takes second place, it is a distant second with ten percent support. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg finds himself in third place, just two points behind Warren and two points ahead of Sanders, who came in at six percent.

Nonetheless, the state remains widely uncertain, as 40 percent of voters are reportedly “undecided.”

Interestingly, it is not necessarily that those in Warren’s state dislike her. She enjoys a 71 percent favorability rating among Democrat voters “likely” to vote in the primary. Analysts believe, though, that voters are thinking more about who could do better in a head-to-head match-up against President Trump in the general election.

“I think it’s the perception that [Biden] can win, primarily,” Suffolk University Political Research Center director David Paleologos said, according to the Boston Globe. “It’s not that Democrats don’t like her. They do like her, by a wide margin.”

“If [voters] don’t see a candidate that’s able to remove Trump, that’s going to impact that candidate’s viability in the primary,” Paleologos added.

Others are worried that Warren stirs up too much controversy. One supporter described her as a “lightning rod.”

“I love Elizabeth Warren here in Massachusetts,” the 50-year-old from West Roxbury said. “But I feel that she’s also a lightning rod in a way that she probably doesn’t intend, and I’m not sure she has broad enough appeal to really run effectively on a national level.”

The survey used a sample of 370 “likely Democratic primary voters” from June 5 to 9. The margin of error is 5.1 percent.

While it is generally too early to take a serious look at potential head-to-head general election match-ups, preliminary results show Biden faring better against Trump.