New Poll Finds Race for Democratic Nomination in Pennsylvania is Tightening
Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to be the top choice for president among Pennsylvania voters, a new Franklin & Marshall College Poll finds, but the race for the Democratic nomination is tightening.
At the same time, the poll released Wednesday found that nearly three-out-of-five voters in the state don’t believe President Donald Trump deserves re-election — which is actually an improvement for him in the polls.
In January, the college’s pollsters found that 57% of Pennsylvanians don’t believe Trump deserves re-election, but that’s down from 59% in October and 61% in July.
As for the Democrats, the poll still has Biden out front, but his support has slipped to 22%, down from 30% in October.
Support for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is also on the wane, down from 17% to 14%, putting her in third place.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, with support from 15% of the respondents, came in second, while former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now in fourth place with the support of 7% of Pennsylvania Democrats.
Bloomberg hadn’t announced his candidacy in October and did not figure in that poll.
His showing puts him ahead of Pete Buttigieg (6%), Amy Klobuchar (5%) and Andrew Yang (5%).
Competition among the top three Democratic candidates is driven by ideology. Three in four Sanders (72%) and Warren (73%) supporters identify as liberal, compared to only one in two (40%) Biden supporters.
Democrats continue to say that healthcare (20%) is the top issue they are considering in selecting a presidential candidate and that honesty (42%) is the quality they most want in a candidate.
Pennsylvania voters told pollsters they are generally satisfied with the direction of the state and their personal finances.
Half (51%) of the state’s registered voters believe the state is “headed in the right direction.” Most voters report they are “better off” (33%) or the “same” (54%) financially compared to last year and most expect to be “better off” (31%) or the “same” (53%) next year—these economic sentiments are slightly more optimistic than those captured during the October poll.
Contrasting with their feelings about their home state, fewer (38%) registered voters believe that the United States is “headed in the right direction.”
About two in five (38%) registered voters in Pennsylvania believes President Trump is doing an “excellent” or “good” job as president, which is higher than the October Franklin & Marshall College Poll.
Nearly two-thirds (67%) of the state’s registered voters say they are “very interested” in the 2020 elections; interest in the general election is already as high as it was immediately prior to the 2018 mid-term election.
This survey reflects interviews with 628 Pennsylvania registered voters, including 292 Democrats, 251 Republicans and 85 independents, conducted by the Center for Opinion Research at Franklin & Marshall College from January 20-26, 2020.
The sample error for this survey is +/- 6.2 percentage points (+/- 9.0 percent for registered Democrats). A complete methodological statement can be found in the full report.
In The News
Health
Voting
Opinion Polls
President Donald Trump's repeated — and baseless — insistence that widespread fraud undermined this month's presidential election has left a mark on Americans' faith in the voting process, a postelection USC Dornsife survey has found. Using a 0-100 scale to measure their confidence that all ballots were tallied... Read More
As health officials warn of the risks of Thanksgiving travel, more than half of Americans still plan to venture away from home, according to a new survey. The website Tripadvisor says 56% of people intend to take trips for the holiday this year, despite the coronavirus pandemic, a... Read More
The global COVID-19 pandemic, with all its devastating consequences, has reaffirmed why science must be at the center of policy considerations, political debate, and media attention. But, lamentably, it is often at the center for all the wrong reasons. Against a backdrop of growing tensions and... Read More
A new survey conducted by ValuePenguin, a data-based personal finance research company, shows that more than a quarter of Americans are getting less sleep and that 1 in 5 are drinking more alcohol as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 2,000 Americans were surveyed... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump heads into the final, frenetic 48 hours of campaign 2020 having lost ground among key groups that powered his drive to the presidency four years ago, the final USC Dornsife poll of the election shows. Former Vice President Joe Biden leads Trump by double digits nationally... Read More
The last Marquette Law School poll to be released before Election Day finds former Vice President Joe Biden the choice of 48% of likely voters in Wisconsin, with President Donald Trump trailing with the support of just 43% of likely voters. The poll found 7% of... Read More
