Sen. Kamala Harris is rising out of the second tier of Democrat contenders, finding herself in third place, according to a post-debate Morning Consult poll released over the weekend.
Harris saw a number of breakout moments during her first debate, most notably taking aim at Joe Biden over his praise of late-segregationist senators and his purported opposition to busing. While her attack did not immediately jeopardize Biden’s status as a frontrunner, Harris is seeing a notable bump in the polls.
The California senator is in third place, barely edging out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (MA), according to the Morning Consult poll released Saturday night.
Morning Consult surveyed 2,407 Democrat primary voters “immediately” after the debate, June 27-28, 2019. It showed Biden leading the pack with 33 percent support, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in second with 19 percent, and Harris and Warren virtually tied for third place with 12 percent. As Morning Consult noted, “It’s an increase of 6 percentage points from the June 17-23 poll, doubling the senator’s vote share” in regards to Harris.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg came in fifth place with six percent support, followed by Sen. Cory Booker (NJ) with three percent, then Beto O’Rourke and Andrew Yang tied at two percent.
The survey also asked Democrat voters to choose a backup candidate. Interestingly, Biden’s supporters overwhelmingly chose Sanders with 32 percent support, Sanders’ supporters chose Biden with 27 percent support, Harris’s supporters chose Warren with 23 percent support, and Warren’s supporters chose Harris with 27 percent support.
The Real Clear Politics average still shows Harris in fourth place with 7.8 percent support.
The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points.