California poll:
Kamala Harris pulls into top tier with Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders.
Sen. Kamala Harris is locked in a statistical dead heat for the California Democratic presidential primary in a new survey, although most of those polled say former Vice President Joe Biden has the best chance of defeating President Trump.
That’s one of several mixed messages in the poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University of Connecticut, which shows the California senator surging in her home state after her performance in the first Democratic debate in June.
Harris was backed by 23% of Democrats and Democraticleaning voters surveyed, Quinnipiac said. Biden had 21% and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had 18%, both within the poll’s margin of error, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren had 16%.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., lagged well behind at 3%. Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang was at 2%, and the rest of the large field of candidates was at 1% or less.
Despite her strong showing, Harris was named by only 11% of respondents as the candidate with the best chance of beating Trump. Biden led easily in that category, with 45%, followed by 12% for Sanders and 8% for Warren, Quinnipiac said.
Harris was in third place in the primary field in an April survey by Quinnipiac, at 17%. Biden was in the top spot then with 26%, while Sanders was second with 18%, and Warren was fourth with 7%.
Assistant poll director Tim Malloy attributed Harris’ rise to her “allaround terrific performance” in the first Democratic presidential debate, in which “Joe Biden hit a single.”
Yet voters still think Biden would be Trump’s toughest opponent because “former Vice President Joe Biden is former Vice President Joe Biden,” Malloy said. “People know he’s been there, dealing with international crises, a heartbeat from the presidency. That carries weight among voters. Who he is is not going to be diminished by one debate performance.
“That said, Joe Biden has to have a better performance in the next debate,” Malloy said. That debate will happen either July 30 or 31 in Detroit — the lineup of 10 candidates each night will be determined Wednesday.
Strength against Trump wasn’t the only category in which Harris was a runnerup among those polled. Twentysix percent of respondents said Biden would be the best leader, compared with 18% for Harris, 17% for Sanders and 14% for Warren. And 28% said Warren has the best policy ideas, compared with 20% for Sanders, 11% for Biden and 9% for Harris.
Yet it was Harris who voters said would generate the most excitement among Democrats. The poll found that 68% were most excited about the prospect of her being the nominee, to 65% for Warren, 58% for Biden and 55% for Sanders.
The survey also found that while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is popular among California Democrats, only 41% of all California voters surveyed approve of her job performance, while 48% disapprove. The negative opinion is driven by the 56% of independent voters disapproving of the San Francisco Democrat’s performance, according to the survey.
Trump continues to be unpopular in California, as only 35% approve of his job performance, compared with 60% who disapprove.
Quinnipiac’s pollsters conducted the survey from July 1015. The poll of presidential candidates was based on 519 Democrats and Democraticleaning voters, and the margin of error was 5.7 percentage points. The survey of Pelosi and Trump was based on 1,125 registered voters, and the margin of error was 3.9 percentage points.