Biden Holds Slim Lead Over Sanders in New National Poll

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(CN) – Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a slim national lead over his 2020 Democratic rivals, according to a poll released Tuesday.

The Emerson poll shows Biden continues to lead the Democratic field with 27% support from registered Democratic voters nationally. This represents a small two-point bump from an Emerson poll in September that had Biden at 25%.

Closely behind Biden is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders with 25% support, a jump to second place for the senator from his third-place 22% in September. Given the three-point margin of error, Sanders and Biden are statistically tied.

Rounding out the top three is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren at 21%, a two-point drop from September. No other candidate cracked national double-digit support in the poll.

A breakdown of the demographics in this poll shows the three top Democratic candidates pull the bulk of their support from three significantly different age groups.

Biden is favored largely by older voters, commanding 44% support from voters over 50 but just 12% from voters aged 18 to 29.

Sanders on the other hand draws most of his support from younger voters, earning 45% support from voters under 30. His support shrinks as voters get older, with 15% support from voters between 50-64 and only 6% from voters over 65.

Warren finds herself enjoying support from both younger and older voters, with roughly equal support from voters over and under 50.

Isabel Holloway, research assistant at Emerson Polling, believes Warren could possibly capitalize on her split demographics.

“Having a more even age distribution of supporters could put Warren in a strong position, but in order to capitalize on this strategy, either Biden or Sanders would need to lose their hold on their older and younger bases,” Holloway said in a statement.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the political spectrum, President Donald Trump’s current approval currently sits at 43%, down five points from last month.

The poll as well reports that in hypothetical one-on-one matchups against Trump and each of the leading 2020 Democratic candidates, Trump loses all three contests 51%-49%.

On the topic of impeachment, the poll found voters slightly in favor with 48% supporting, 44% opposed and 9% unsure. The numbers fall in line with a CNN poll also released Tuesday, which found 50% in favor of impeachment.

The CNN poll puts Trump’s job approval at 41%.

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