Former Vice President Joe Biden's support has been steady as he has mulled jumping into the race for his party’s nomination. | Tim Tai/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP File Photo POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL Poll: Biden tops Democratic field after rough week

The spate of negative stories about Joe Biden’s interactions with women hasn’t upended the former vice president’s standing as presumptive 2020 Democratic front-runner, according to the first national poll of the presidential field conducted since the controversy erupted.

In a survey from Morning Consult, Biden was still at the top of the list of candidates with the support of 32 percent of voters who say they intend to participate in a Democratic primary or caucus next year. He is 9 points ahead of the next closest contender: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), at 23 percent.


Biden’s support has been steady as he has mulled jumping into the race for his party’s nomination. In the past nine weeks, Morning Consult has found Biden's support ranging from 29 percent to 35 percent. This week’s 32 percent score is down just 1 point from last week.

The latest poll, which was conducted April 1-7, included 13,644 voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.

While Biden’s topline support was little changed, there was a slight negative trend in his personal favorability ratings. In the latest poll, 75 percent of Democratic primary voters said they have a favorable opinion of the former vice president, down from 78 percent. And the share of voters who said they held a “very favorable” opinion of Biden decreased to 35 percent, down from 41 percent.

But Biden still had the largest “very favorable” score among the field; Sanders was second, with 32 percent viewing the Vermonter very favorably.

After the top two candidates, the Morning Consult poll showed no other hopeful had double-digit support. California Sen. Kamala Harris is third at 9 percent, followed by former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke at 8 percent, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 7 percent, South Bend (Ind.) Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 5 percent and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker at 4 percent.

Buttigieg has been rising slowly but steadily over the past few weeks. After hovering below 1 percent through mid-March, he registered 1 percent in the week ending March 17, 2 percent on March 24, 3 percent last week and now 5 percent in this week’s poll.