A new USA Today/Suffolk poll finds joe Biden retained a wide lead over the Democratic Presidential filed at 32%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 14%, and Bernie Sanders at 12%. Only three other candidates received support above 2%: Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris, each at 6%, and Andrew Yang at 3%. At 2% were Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 32%, followed by Elizabeth Warren at 19%, Bernie Sanders at 15%, Kamala Harris at 7%, Pete Buttigieg at 5% and Andrew Yang at 3%. No other candidate tops 1%.
In hypothetical general election match ups, the top four candidates all beat President Trump by double digits.
- Biden 54–Trump 38
- Sanders 53–Trump 39
- Warren 52–Trump 40
- Harris 51–Trump 40
- Buttigieg 49–Trump 40
A new EPIC-MRA poll in Michigan finds Joe Biden leading President Trump in a general election match up, 51% to 41%.
“But while Biden’s 10-point lead — more than double the 4-percentage-point margin of error in the poll — is the largest lead posted by a Democrat in the poll, Biden isn’t the only one with an edge over the sitting Republican president…. The three other top candidates running — Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris — all lead Trump, though by smaller margins.”
Monmouth pollster Patrick Murray acknowledged that a poll released this week showing Joe Biden’s support dropping by 13 percent was an “outlier.” Murray said the result was the “product of the uncertainty that is inherent in the polling process” which “occurs very infrequently.” He 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.”
Joe Biden said that racism in America is institutional and it is a “white man’s problem visited on people of color,” arguing that the way to attack the issue is to defeat President Trump and shame the racists he has emboldened, the AP reports.
Taking aim at incendiary racial appeals by Trump, Biden said that a president’s words can “appeal to the worst damn instincts of human nature,” just as they can move markets or take a nation into war.
In huge news for the battle for the Senate, Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson announced Wednesday that he would resign from the chamber at the end of 2019 for health reasons. GOP Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a replacement, and that person will need to defend the seat in a 2020 special election. The winner will be up for re-election again in 2022.
Georgia’s other Republican senator, David Perdue, will have to run for a full six-year term next year, and Democrats were already targeting him. A Democratic victory in one of the Peach State’s two seats would go a long way toward helping Team Blue turn its 53-47 deficit in the Senate into a majority, and it now has the tantalizing possibility of taking both
Stacey Abrams (D) ruled out running for the U.S. Senate next year following news that Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) would retire, The Hillreports.
Said Abrams: “Our thoughts are with Senator Isakson and his family. Leader Abrams’ focus will not change: she will lead voter protection efforts in key states across the country, and make sure Democrats are successful in Georgia in 2020.”
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds 65% of Democratic primary voters would be more likely to support a candidate who wants to institute a single-payer health care system like Medicare for All, while 13% said they’d be less likely to back a candidate based on that support.
Joe Biden pressed his case that he is the “most electable” Democratic presidential nominee, telling black journalists that while his primary rivals may draw large crowds in urban centers or excite young progressives, he retains the most racially diverse coalition of supporters, the New York Times reports.
Politico: “Biden’s campaign convened a dozen or so black reporters from major media outlets Tuesday for what was offered as a private, off-the-record sit-down… But Biden opened the discussion allowing himself to be quoted.”
“And then he started talking, and talked some more, and before everyone knew it, the former vice president had held forth for 90 minutes. That’s an extraordinary amount of time for a major presidential candidate to meet the press in a single sitting.”
Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) has won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood (D) and two other candidates in November, the AP reports.
Reeves defeated former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. in Tuesday’s primary runoff.
“At a retreat with top GOP donors in Wyoming last week, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy broached a growing concern for senior Republicans: a crucial, do-over election for a North Carolina congressional seat.” Politico reports.
“McCarthy has traveled to the state to help the Republican candidate, state Sen. Dan Bishop, and has pushed his rank-and-file lawmakers to lend a hand. And as he chatted up contributors, he warned that next month’s vote is critical: Following a devastating 2018 election that demolished the House GOP majority, a win in the nationally-watched race would give the party a badly-needed morale boost.”
With two new polls out this morning before the DNC’s qualifying deadline, it appears that next month’s Democratic presidential debate will be limited to just ten candidates: Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro and Andrew Yang.
The debate is scheduled for September 12.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that since the first time since the 2016 election, more voters say the economy is getting worse than say it’s getting better.
Voters still think the economy is good, but of those polled, 37% say the economy is getting worse, compared with 31% who say it’s getting better and 30% who say it’s staying the same.
Businessman Daniel McCarthy (R) announced his intention to run against Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in 2020, ABC Arizona reports.
“McCarthy is capable of putting tens of millions into the race according to a source close to the campaign.”
“To find a clue about what might have gone wrong with Georgia’s election last fall, look no further than voting machine No. 3 at the Winterville Train Depot outside Athens,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
“On machine No. 3, Republicans won every race. On each of the other six machines in that precinct, Democrats won every race. The odds of an anomaly that large are less than 1 in 1 million.”
“It just so happens that this occurred in Republican Brian Kemp’s home precinct, where he initially had a problem voting when his yellow voter access card didn’t work because a poll worker forgot to activate it. At the time, Kemp was secretary of state — Georgia’s top election official — and running for governor in a tight contest with Democrat Stacey Abrams.”
“The suspicious results in Winterville are evidence in the ongoing mystery of whether errors with voting machines contributed to a stark drop-off in votes recorded in the race for Georgia lieutenant governor between Republican Geoff Duncan, who ended up winning, and Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico.”
Kirsten Gillibrand just dropped out of the race.