The latest Fox News poll shows Senator Elizabeth Warren finally jumping ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic nominee race. Warren saw an eight percent jump from last month’s survey, rising to second place behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who is still leading with support from 31 percent of Democratic primary voters.
Warren has gained steady ground since March 2019, when she received support from just four percent of Democratic primary voters. In July, she made a massive jump to 12 percent and the latest Fox News survey puts her support at 20 percent among Democratic primary voters polled.
The Massachusets senator is gaining support at the expense of Sanders. Since March, Warren has gained 16 points while Sanders has lost 13 points. In March, the Vermont senator had the support of 23 percent of Democratic primary voters. In August’s survey, support for Sanders has fallen to just 10 percent.
Warren has also become the favorite candidate among primary voters under age 45 and those who identify as “very” liberal.
While Biden still remains the clear front-runner in the race, his numbers have dropped slightly. He polled at 33 percent in July and has fallen to 31 percent in the August poll.
Warren Leads in Pivotal Iowa
The Massachusetts senator is also currently leading the polls in Iowa, where Democratic primaries will kick off next year.
According to the latest Iowa Starting Line-Change Research poll, Warren is the top pick of likely Iowa Caucus-goers, with 28 percent saying they will vote for her. She has an 11 point lead over Biden and Sanders who tied for second with 17 percent voting for each candidate.
According to the Iowa poll, Warren’s support cuts across age demographics. She is leading every age demographic, except the youngest age (18-34 range) where Sanders—the oldest candidate in the race—has a 14 point lead over her.
In Iowa, Warren has gone all-in, devoting much of her time and campaign resources toward the state. The strategy has paid dividends. Her reception in the state over this weekend “was a clear warning sign to other 2020 candidates that hers is a campaign to be reckoned with in the state that kicks off the race for the party’s nomination,” noted Thomas Beaumont and Alexandra Jaffe of the Associated Press.
While former Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod notes that poll numbers in August do not guarantee what will happen in February, he concedes Warren “has a super organization and her campaign is hot.”
Majority of Americans Favor Assault Weapons Ban
In the aftermath of recent mass shootings in the United States, Democratic nominees stepped up their criticism of the Trump administration’s gun control policy. The issue is likely to factor significantly in future Democratic debates. Eight-six percent of Democrats favor bans on automatic and semi-automatic weapons, while only forty-six percent of Republicans favor the same.
A majority of those polled (60 percent) also believed the threat of mass shootings by U.S. citizens is greater than terrorist attacks by jihadists. A majority of those polled, 52 percent, also said they disapprove of how President Donald Trump has responded to recent mass shootings.
Trump’s poll numbers continue to take a hit. Fifty-nine percent of those polled also said they believe Donald Trump “is tearing the country apart” and 56 percent have an unfavorable opinion of the president.
With Warren surging ahead in polls, how she responds to topics that are of interest to the American public, especially gun control, will affect her in the primary race.
Rahima Sohail is a contributor to Globely News, writing on U.S. politics and the geopolitics of Asia. She was previously a sub-editor and producer at The Express Tribune, a Pakistani English-language daily. She spends most of her time reading and ranting about politics and football.
