Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard head up a list of 2020 presidential candidates that Democratic activists don’t want to win in key early primary states.
Nearly 60% of those surveyed said they do not want Gabbard to win the Democratic nomination, compared to 50% who said the same of Bernie Sanders, according to a survey published Monday from statistics site FiveThirtyEight.
Interestingly enough, just over 40% report they feel the same of former Vice President Joe Biden. (RELATED: Biden, Sanders Have More Support Than Trump In New Poll)
Early-state Democratic activists have very different views of the candidates than the polls. Quite down on Sanders & Biden, and not really feeling Beto at all. https://t.co/lMIJB1RZJ2 pic.twitter.com/1Epslp2AXQ
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 22, 2019
Activists in early state primaries preferred Democratic candidates California Sen. Kamala Harris (53%), New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker (47%), and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (35%), according to the survey.
Tulsi Gabbard Speaks To Supports During Campaign Event/ Matt Johnson Creative Commons
The survey came from extended book research in which FiveThirtyEight author Seth Masket interviewed 60 Democratic activists in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and Washington, D.C.
Masket acknowledged that most of the activists surveyed appeared to have a short list of candidates they would like to see win, but he also noted that there was an uptick in the number of respondents committed to a single candidate.
Harris experienced a consistent loss of support in the three times the results were published. She earned 61% support in December compared to only 53% in April. Booker earned 45% support in December, bumped to 49% in February and fell back to 47% in April.
Sanders recently participated in a town hall event on Fox News during which he defended his views on abortion, even in the final months of pregnancy:
“Look, I think that happens very, very rarely, and I think this is being made into a political issue,” Sanders said. “Okay, so I think it’s rare, I think it’s being made into a political issue, but at the end of the day, I believe that the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her physician, not the federal government, not the state government, and not the local government.”