Striving 2020 presidential contender Kamala Harris jumped eight points to take the third slot in a field of 17, according to a poll CNN released late Tuesday.
Former Vice President Joe Biden topped the list with 28 percent support among Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents polled March 14-17 by SSRS. Rolling up in second was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 20 percent, followed by Harris at 12 percent. Harris’s station was up four percent since December. Her support rose in several fields but most prominently among Democrats, liberals, women, and racial and ethnic minorities, as opposed to independents, moderates, men, and whites.
Hot on Harris’s heels was newly announced candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke of Texas with 11 percent.
All other current and potential competitors for the Democrat presidential nomination fell into the single digits: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at six percent, former Secretary of State John Kerry at four percent, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar each at three percent. The remainder of the group fell at or below one percent.
Four in ten respondents logged enthusiasm for voting for president in 2020 as “extremely enthusiastic.” CNN measured this as a high not rivaled since a close 37 percent in 2008.
Live interviewers randomly polled 1,003 adults in the survey comprised of 456 Democrats and independents who lean Democrat and 448 Republicans and independents who lean Republican.
Republicans and independents leaning Republican, at 76 percent, vastly believed keeping President Donald Trump as their nominee in 2020 provides the best shot at winning the presidency. Just 17 percent favored an other-than-Trump nominee.
More than half of Democrats and independents leaning Democrat characterized the Democrat field as wide open.
On the issues, Republicans and Democrats diverge. Republicans polled prioritized immigration and economy as their top issues, while Democrats put “a candidate’s personal attributes, immigration, the economy and health care all about evenly,” the report stated. Republicans placed a candidate’s ideology and position on issues as secondary to economy and immigration.