Two polls released a day after Joe Biden held his first campaign rally in Pittsburgh show the former US vice-president ahead of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, improving his numbers by six to 11 points.

The Morning Consult poll conducted between April 22-28 showed Biden was the first choice for 36 percent of Democratic voters planning to take part in their state’s primary, a six-point increase from last week.

Biden announced his official bid for the Democratic nomination last Thursday. A second poll, by SSRS for CNN, has given Biden a 24-point lead on Senator Bernie Sanders as the top choice for 39 percent of Democrats. That figure was 28 percent in March.

New 2020 @CNN poll just out:Biden 39%Sanders 15%Warren 8%Buttigieg 7%O’Rourke 6%Harris 5%Booker 2%Gabbard 2%Klobuchar 2%Castro 1%Gillibrand 1%Inslee 1%Swalwell 1%Williamson 1%Yang 1%de Blasio <1%Ryan <1%Bennet 0%Delaney 0%Hickenlooper 0%Messam 0%Moulton 0% — Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) April 30, 2019

The two men are the only candidates in the race with double-digit support, though Sanders fell by two points in the Morning Consult poll.

The news came after a poll of voters in the historically red state of Texas revealed on Monday that President Donald Trump (49 percent) and Barack Obama’s former second-in-command are almost equal in a hypothetical match-up, with Biden just ahead on 50 percent.

The Emerson College poll of 799 voters showed similar results in a match-up between Trump and Beto O’Rourke or Sanders (50:50 percent; 51:49 percent respectively). Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat president since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

These are some really bad poll results for Trump in Texas. https://t.co/DQLcAtOu66pic.twitter.com/XECVB0fJu8 — Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) April 29, 2019

Biden could also upset the apple cart in first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. A Suffolk University survey released Tuesday found the Delawarean had 20 percent support over Sanders and Pete Buttigieg (both at 12 percent) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (eight percent). Both Sanders and Warren are from states close to New Hampshire (Vermont and Massachusetts) and are perceived as having an advantage there.

Speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America, Biden made his own spin on Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, saying it is his intention to “make America moral again.”

"Make America return to the essence of who we are, the dignity of the country, the dignity of people, treating our people with dignity," he added. “End this god-awful, deliberate division that’s being taken in order to separate people to aggrandize his own power.”

The Media (Fake News) is pushing Sleepy Joe hard. Funny, I’m only here because of Biden & Obama. They didn’t do the job and now you have Trump, who is getting it done - big time! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 29, 2019

His comments followed tweets by Trump claiming he was “only here because of Biden & Obama. They didn’t do the job.”

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