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Five leading Democrats would all beat Trump in 2020, poll says

President still beats all of his opponents heavily among white voters without college degrees, however

Chris Riotta
New York
Thursday 02 May 2019 18:02 EDT
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Joe Biden launches his 2020 presidential campaign

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

There are almost too many Democrats to count in the 2020 primaries — but any of the top five leading candidates would beat Donald Trump in a general election, according to the latest polling.

Despite the majority of those surveyed saying the president is doing a good job with the nation’s economy (56 per cent), each of the five highest polling Democrats on the campaign trail beat Mr Trump in CNN’s head-to-head polling conducted by SSRS.

Beto O’Rourke bests Mr Trump by the highest margin, with 52 per cent of voters saying they would vote for him compared to 42 per cent who said they would vote for the president in a race against the Texas Democrat.

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders each beat out Mr Trump as well with a six and seven per cent advantage respectively, while Kamala Harris leads the president by four per cent.

Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg — who has climbed in the polls in recent weeks and proved effective at national fundraising despite little name recognition — also would beat Mr Trump by three per cent, according to the poll.

Elizabeth Warren appears to be the only candidate polled in the SSRS survey who did not beat out Mr Trump, though the two politicians are effectively neck-and-neck.

While Mr Trump holds 48 per cent in a race against the liberal Massachusetts senator, Ms Warren maintains 47 per cent of support if she were to secure the Democratic nomination.

Mr Trump’s acting chief of staff suggested voters would effectively return him to the Oval Office in the 2020 elections during a talk this week in California, where he foreshadowed the economy would serve as one of the top factors in his re-election victory.

“You hate to sound like a cliché, but are you better off than you were four years ago? It's pretty simple, right? It's the economy, stupid. I think that's easy. People will vote for somebody they don't like if they think it's good for them,” Mick Mulvaney said.

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The poll was conducted between 25 April and 28 April with a sample of 1,007 respondents.

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