Thirty-two percent of likely Democratic voters favor former Vice President Joe Biden as the party’s pick to take on President Donald Trump in next year’s election, according to one poll. | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images 2020 elections Biden back on top, enjoying wide leads in two new polls

Two new polls show Joe Biden more than a dozen points ahead of his nearest rivals in the 2020 Democratic primary — further fortifying the former vice president’s front-runner status after an apparent outlier survey put his campaign on the defensive earlier this week.

Thirty-two percent of likely Democratic voters favor Biden as the party’s pick to take on President Donald Trump in next year’s election, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday.


Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren ranks in second place with 14 percent, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with 12 percent. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Sen. Kamala Harris both received 6 percent. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who polled at 3 percent, was the only other candidate to garner more than 2 percent support.

Biden similarly dominated a Quinnipiac University poll published later Wednesday morning, again achieving 32 percent support among Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic.

Warren directly trails Biden in the Quinnipiac primary rankings with 19 percent, followed by Sanders at 15 percent, Harris at 7 percent and Buttigieg at 5 percent. Yang received 3 percent support, with no other candidate polling at more than 1 percent.

Wednesday’s pair of polls are likely to bolster morale among Biden’s campaign team and deflect questions about his so-far steady standing in the crowded Democratic primary that emanated from a Monmouth University poll released Monday.

That survey, which received some criticism for its comparatively small sample size, showed Biden, Sanders and Warren locked in a virtual three-way tie, with the two liberal senators each polling at 20 percent and Biden dropping behind with 19 percent.

Harris attained 8 percent support in the Monmouth poll, with 4 percent for New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Buttigieg, and 3 percent for Yang. No other candidate surpassed the 2 percent threshold.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth poll, acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that “as other national polls of [the] 2020 Democratic presidential race have been released this week, it is clear that the Monmouth University Poll published Monday is an outlier.”

Murray said he “understood when we released our poll that the picture it painted diverged from others,” but added: “In the end, we must put out the numbers we have. They should always be viewed in the context of what other polls are saying, not only as it applies to the horse race, but also for our understanding of the issues that motivate voters in their decision-making process.”

The USA TODAY/Suffolk poll, which was conducted Aug. 20-25, surveyed 1,000 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey included 424 registered voters who plan to vote in the Democratic caucus or primary with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.76 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac poll, which was conducted Aug. 21-26, surveyed 1,422 self-identified registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The survey included 648 Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percentage points.

The Monmouth poll, which was conducted Aug. 16-20, surveyed 298 registered voters who identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.