Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) arrives on stage for a Jan. 29 event on Capitol Hill. Morning Consult polling shows Sanders is the top choice for Democratic primary voters who identify as LGBTQ. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

34% of LGBTQ primary voters say Sen. Bernie Sanders is their top choice for president, overperforming his first-choice share among the broader electorate by 11 points.

Compared to all Democratic primary voters, LGBTQ voters are roughly twice as likely to identify as “very liberal” and to be ages 18-29.

Biden, the national front-runner, has never led the race among LGBTQ voters, and statistically ties Sen. Elizabeth Warren with the demographic.

The Democratic Party is viewed as a coalition of different groups — African Americans and Jewish Americans, laborers and teachers — all organized around a series of particular policy concerns. Among them are LGBTQ Americans, who account for more than a tenth of the party’s primary electorate, Morning Consult polling shows, and are backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a big way. According to the latest Morning Consult poll that tracks the race, Sanders is the first-choice candidate for 34 percent of Democratic primary voters who identify as LGBTQ, topping his support among the broader electorate by 11 percentage points.

Sanders has a long record of support for gay rights. As Burlington mayor in the 1980s, he proclaimed a Gay Pride Day, while during his tenure in the House, he opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a law that barred gay and lesbian military servicemembers from acknowledging their sexual orientation. And in 2009, Sanders endorsed marriage rights for gay couples — three years before then-Vice President Joe Biden did the same. But perhaps more notably, Sanders’ strength with LGBTQ primary voters aligns strongly with their demographics. The Jan. 20-26 poll found that 12 percent of the 17,836 voters who indicated they may vote in the Democratic primary or caucus in their state identified as LGBTQ. Like Sanders’ supporters, the group skews younger and more liberal than the broader primary electorate: LGBTQ voters are roughly twice as likely to identify as “very liberal” (33 percent vs. 16 percent) and to be between the ages of 18 and 29 (35 percent to 18 percent).

The demographic makeup helps explain why Biden underperforms among LGBTQ primary voters, down 11 points compared to his share of the overall primary electorate. Among those who are backing Biden in the contest, 7 percent identify as LGBTQ, compared with about 1 in 5 voters who support Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Biden, who made waves for coming out for gay marriage before President Barack Obama endorsed it ahead of the 2012 election, has never led the race among LGBTQ voters, though he did come close amid a surge in support around the time of his April campaign launch. Warren more strongly tested Sanders’ grip on the group as she experienced a prolonged rise of her own from late summer into the fall months of 2019.