The poll shows O’Malley at 18 percent of Democratic caucus-goers in a field of nine potential candidates | AP Photo O'Malley tests 2020 waters with Iowa poll

Donald Trump is only in his second month in the White House, but already one Democrat is polling his party's Iowa caucus-goers ahead of a possible 2020 run for the presidency.

The leadership PAC of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley commissioned a Public Policy Polling survey of the first-in-the-nation caucus state earlier this month, according to a copy of the results obtained by POLITICO.


The poll, which shows O’Malley at 18 percent of Democratic caucus-goers in a field of nine potential candidates if the contest were held today, also asked the Iowans about New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg; and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. “Not sure” got 32 percent of the vote.

O’Malley — who ran against Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for the 2016 nomination before dropping out on caucus night after earning less than 1 percent of the vote — was joined at the top of the poll by Booker, who was at 17 percent. Klobuchar, who represents a neighboring state and who's been a frequent visitor to Iowa over the years, got 11 percent. All other candidates were under 10 percent.

A number of high-profile potential 2020 candidates were left out of the poll, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sanders.

“Gov. O’Malley spent a lot of time in Iowa during the campaign and made a very favorable impression on Iowa Democrats. We wanted to see if the conversations he started with Iowans resonated and are glad to learn that they did,” said O’Malley’s 2016 campaign manager Dave Hamrick.

The automated phone and online poll, sponsored by O'Malley's O’Say Can You See leadership PAC, showed the former Baltimore mayor with 47 percent favorable and 12 percent unfavorable ratings. Forty-one percent of Iowa Democrats polled said they weren’t sure how they felt about him.

The next Iowa caucuses are expected to be in early 2020.

O’Malley has been unusually open about his interest in running again, visiting Iowa three times since the November election to campaign and raise money for other Democrats, and telling NBC News in January that he “just might” run. Other possible contenders have followed a more traditional path of keeping their plans quiet — rather than polling or visiting the early states — wary of being seen as too calculating or overly ambitious.

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O’Malley’s move to poll so early in Iowa reflects a sense among some political professionals that the old political rules about the usefulness of being coy in pursuit of the presidency are outdated. Up to two dozen Democrats draw mention as possible contenders ahead of a 2020 contest that’s widely expected to feature a sprawling primary.

The survey gauged the favorability ratings of each of the nine potential contenders.

While O’Malley — who spent much of 2015 in Iowa campaigning — had the highest favorable ratings, Booker came in at 40 percent (to 11 percent unfavorable), Cuomo at 35 percent (to 19 percent unfavorable), and Klobuchar at 30 percent (9 percent).

Each of the candidates, however, had “not sure” as their most popular descriptor, painting the picture of a wide-open field — unlike 2016.

PPP’s survey reached 1,062 Iowa Democrats from March 3 to March 6.