Former Vice President Joe Biden leads the Democratic field among likely Nevada caucusgoers, followed by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, according to a new poll from Monmouth University.
The poll – which is the first released out of Nevada from the list of the Democratic National Committee’s debate-qualifying pollsters – found 36% of likely Democratic caucus attendees in Nevada said they’d support the former vice president, leading Warren by 17 percentage points.
Around one-in-five said they’d support Warren (19%), putting the Massachusetts senator over Sanders, the Vermont lawmaker who holds 13% of the electorate.
With the deadline for debate qualification polls on Wednesday night, this poll doesn’t change the roster of candidates who have qualified to participate in the DNC debate set for later this month.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and California Sen. Kamala Harris receive 7% and 6% of the vote, respectively. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and businessman Andrew Yang landed at 2% each.
Biden leads all candidates significantly among likely Democratic caucusgoers who identify as moderate or conservative (47% over 11% for Warren and 9% for Sanders), but his lead lessens among those who identify as somewhat liberal (up 7 points over Warren). Among very liberal likely Democratic caucusgoers, 27% prefer Warren and 26% want Sanders to just 19% for Biden.
Health care dominates as an issue this cycle, with 41% of likely Democratic caucusgoers in Nevada who said it was one of the most important issues in deciding who to support, followed by 19% for immigration, 17% for climate change and global warming, and 17% for jobs and unemployment.
Half also said it was very important to them that the Democratic nominee supports “Medicare for All,” close to the same number who said it’s important the nominee builds on the legacy of former President Barack Obama (44%).
Fewer thought it was very important that their nominee support the Green New Deal (34%) and impeaching Trump (29%). Almost two-in-five said it wasn’t important that the nominee support impeaching the sitting President.
On the issue of perceived electability, almost two-thirds of likely Nevada Democratic caucusgoers would rather support a candidate who they don’t agree with on most issues, but has a stronger chance against President Donald Trump, while only a quarter would prefer a candidate they agree with totally, but would have a hard time beating Trump.
The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from June 6-11, 2019 with 370 Nevada voters who are likely to attend the Democratic presidential caucuses in February 2020, out of 1,333 registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters who were contacted for the poll. The question results in this release have a margin of error of 5.1 percentage points.