(CN) — With nine months to go before the Iowa caucuses, two recently released polls show former Vice President Joe Biden has a commanding lead in the race to represent the Democratic party in the 2020 presidential election.
A poll released by CNN on Tuesday showed Biden far out in front of the rest of the field, enjoying an 11-point bounce since officially announcing he would run April 25. A Morning Consult poll showed similar results, with the former vice president climbing 6 points.
Biden was favored as the top choice to confront President Donald Trump by 39% of respondents in the CNN poll. Bernie Sanders came in a distant second, managing 15% of voters – a 4-point decline from March.
The polls combine to show how controversies surrounding Biden’s rollout and his erstwhile handsy approach to women during public events have done little to dent his prospects. The wing of the Democratic Party who feel Biden isn’t progressive enough to represent the modern iteration of the party are, at least presently, outnumbered by people pushing a pragmatic approach to taking down Trump.
According to the CNN poll, 92% of potential Democratic voters deemed it “extremely/very important” to nominate a candidate with a good chance of beating Trump, prioritizing it over any other factor.
In another demonstration of the ascendency of the moderate wing of the Democratic party, 77% of poll respondents said it was either extremely or very important for a potential candidate to be able to work with Republicans to get things done.
Biden was not the only one to receive a bump since March. South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg climbed six points to a third-place showing in the CNN poll. He received 11% approval from respondents.
Buttigieg came in fourth in the Morning Consult Poll, behind Elizabeth Warren with 9% of the vote to his 8%.
In both polls, the field gets crowded after Warren and Buttigieg. U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas are the only other candidates to garner more than 2% in either poll save U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who eked out a 3% approval rating in the Morning Consult.
While the polls are unquestionably positive news for Biden, the other candidates need not despair as 64% of the respondents to the CNN poll said they are likely to change their minds between now and debate season in early 2020.
Some of the demographic breakdowns in the Morning Consult poll show Biden’s lead over Sanders among white voters is narrower (8 percentage points) than among black voters (24 percentage points).
Sanders is more popular with voters under 30, with 36% of younger respondents favoring Sanders compared with only 23% for Biden, according to the Morning Consult poll.
Biden on the other hand has the support of voters over 65, a group that tends to turn out and vote in greater numbers. Biden enjoys the support of 48% of that coveted demographic, while Sanders is in third place, a point behind Buttigieg.
Biden is also more popular than Sanders among women, who tend to vote in greater numbers than men. He has an 18-point lead over Sanders, further evidence that recent attempts to attack Biden over his lack of respect for the personal space of women have failed to gain traction with voters.
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