Tipsheet

Big Effin' Deal: Biden Bounces Out to Major Leads in Multiple Primary Polls

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  April 30, 2019 2:15 PM

Former Vice President Joe Biden jumped into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary late last week, and his rollout has been a mixed bag, in my view.  His team committed a number of unforced errors, and he's floundered on some topics (with even more explanations and apologies still underway), but he hit his first-day fundraising mark, and has already collected a bevy of endorsements.  His best news yet, however, comes directly from primary voters.  In two national polls, Biden has bounced out to a sizable lead over the rest of the field, clearly and undeniably expanding the consistent but fairly modest advantage he held prior to formally entering the race.  This Morning Consult poll garnered a fair amount of attention late last night:


But was that data set an outlier?  As Leah noted this morning, a fresh CNN poll suggests not:


That's two national surveys showing Biden soaring into the mid-to-high 30's (no small achievement in a 20-person field), with second-place Bernie hovering in the teens or low-20's.  Biden's big boom is fueled by non-white voters -- notably, he's winning a near-majority of black women:


It's extremely early.  Biden has been in the race for less than one week.  Things change.  Debates happen.  Gaffes occur.  Events shift.  Biden is now a declared candidate, but how he'll perform over the coming months is still a very open question.  We won't even see this field hold its first debates for about two months, so any definitive declarations about what this polling movement does, or does not, mean is amusingly premature.  But there is no disputing that this represents very welcome news for Team Biden.  He was the slight frontrunner before getting in, and has since vaulted into clear frontrunner status.  For now.  This is an interesting point about the conventional wisdom surrounding Uncle Joe's long-rumored campaign:


Quasi-counterpoint (minus Hillary's glaring likability problem):

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The Democratic field has mostly been playing patty-cake amongst themselves for the time being, but that was never going to last.  And a certain somebody is obviously determined to launch torpedoes to help along the process of Biden taking on water:


Biden yesterday joined a number of his fellow Democrats in calling for a huge tax increase on 91 percent of middle class families by repealing the Trump tax cuts.  This is significant attack fodder for the GOP.

UPDATE - Three's a trend:


And check out these numbers in Bernie's backyard, where the Vermont socialist has been leading: