Joe Biden remains the top choice among Democratic voters in states that will hold early presidential primary and caucus contests in 2020, as four main contenders emerged as the top tier of the large field, a new CBS News poll showed on Sunday.
Biden had 25 percent support as voters' first choice for Democratic nominee, with Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at 20 percent and Kamala Harris of California at 16 percent, gaining ground on the former vice president. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was fourth in the survey with 15 percent support. No other candidate reached double-digit support in the poll.
Biden continued to benefit from his perceived electability against President Donald Trump in the general election, and 85 percent cited his time as former President Barack Obama's vice president as a reason for considering him.
Still, there's an enthusiasm gap for Biden among some primary voters, the poll found. A majority of Democrats surveyed, 56 percent, said Warren would fight "a great deal" for people like them, and 54 percent said the same of Sanders. Only 38 percent described Biden that way.
The CBS poll was conducted July 9-18 by YouGov. A sample of 18,550 registered voters were polled in 18 states that will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses before and on March 3, known as Super Tuesday. The sample included 8,760 self-identified Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, and the margin of error was about plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.