Poll: Gillibrand Trails Yang, Almost Everyone Else in Democratic Field With Less Than 1 Percent Support

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) is trailing even little-known Democratic candidate Andrew Yang in a new Monmouth survey of the 2020 Democratic field.

Gillibrand came in with less than 1 percent support in the wide field of both declared and undeclared candidates. Yang, an entrepreneur and founder of the nonprofit Venture for America, was able to scrape up 1 percent support in the survey, along with former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D.), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and former Obama administration official Julian Castro.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet started a campaign, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) continued to be early frontrunners at 28 percent and 25 percent support, respectively.

Gillibrand has bigger problems than not registering with Democratic voters nationally. A new Des Moines Register poll of 401 likely Democratic caucus-goers showed Gillibrand with zero percent support, meaning not a single person surveyed made her their first choice for president.

Gillibrand has not officially launched her campaign, although she's effectively been running since January when she formed a presidential exploratory committee.

The poll came the same day as a report on a former Gillibrand aide in the Senate who quit over her office's handling of a sexual harassment complaint.

"When I had the courage to speak up about my harasser, I was belittled by her office and treated like an inconvenience," the former aide said. "She kept a harasser on her staff until it proved politically untenable for her to do so."

Gillibrand's office initially only reprimanded her accused harasser—an older, married man who had worked with Gillibrand for years—last summer when the complaint came to light. After Politico reported on additional complaints about the man in the office, Gillibrand dismissed him last week.

Gillibrand has focused her campaign around gender issues but struggled to make gains in what could be the largest presidential primary field in history.

She's been hampered by questions about her formerly conservative views when she represented an upstate New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives. She has since renounced her old positions on issues such as gun control and immigration, becoming one of the most liberal voices in the Senate.

Click here for the mobile version of this story (with comments)