Some Democratic primary voters - particularly those who support 2020 candidates Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Rep. Tim Ryan, and Sen. Bernie Sanders - are skeptical of the Democratic National Committee's ability to run a fair primary process.


INSIDER conducted a poll through SurveyMonkey audience with 1,191 respondents in late June, and one item of interest was how the old wounds of the 2016 primary may linger among some who plan to participate this time.There were 427 respondents who said they were registered to vote and would likely participate in the Democratic primary process. We asked this group: "How much faith do you have in the Democratic National Committee to run a fair Democratic primary process?"

Among likely Democratic primary voters overall, about 22% said they had "a great deal of faith" the DNC would run the primaries fairly, another 22% said they had "a lot of faith" in the group, and about 36% of Democrats said they had "a moderate amount of faith" in it.

We also asked respondents a number of questions about the Democratic field. Through these questions, we can figure out which contenders people would be satisfied with in the event they became the nominee, which allows us to figure out whose constituencies are the most suspicious of DNC intentions.


About 38% of Gabbard's supporters, 29% of Yang's supporters, 27% of Ryan's supporters, and 25% of Sanders' supporters either have "no faith" or "not a lot of faith" in the DNC's process, according to a recent INSIDER poll.

About 12% of Democratic voters overall said they have "not a lot of faith" in the DNC, and about 5% had "no faith at all."


The DNC has struggled to rebuild trust with many Democratic voters and activists alienated by the group's bias towards Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential primary. Sanders repeatedly accused the DNC of attempting to undermine his 2016 campaign after emails were leaked showing DNC leaders supported Clinton.

And it was revealed following the election that the DNC gave Clinton control over its strategy and finances in exchange for her help with fundraising during the election.


More recently, some Democrats have criticized the group for refusing to hold a primary debate on climate change policy, which the majority of 2020 candidates are pushing for.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,191 respondents collected June 21 to June 22 2019, a margin of error plus or minus 3.02 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.