Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are among those touted as serious Democratic presidential contenders in 2020, but three-out-of-four Democrats think their party needs to turn to someone new.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 73% of Likely Democratic Voters believe their party should look for a fresh face to run for president in 2020. Just 16% disagree and think the party should promote a candidate who has already run in the past. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
By comparison, with Clinton seen as a shoo-in for the 2016 nomination, just 36% of Democrats were calling for a new face in that election, but an unusually high 21% were undecided.
Among all likely voters, 65% say Democrats should find a new face for 2020, while only 19% think it should go with someone who has run for the White House before. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.
As for Clinton, 58% now believe she has been bad for the Democratic Party. Only 22% think she’s been good for Democrats, while 12% say she’s had no impact on the party.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 11-12, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
In a survey last November when Biden was touring a new book, 41% of Democrats picked him out of a list of six potential White House hopefuls as the best nominee for the party in 2020. Sanders was a distant second with 20% support, but 13% of Democrats wanted someone else entirely or were undecided.
Democrats are closely divided over Clinton’s impact: 33% think she’s been good for their party, but 39% believe she’s been bad for it instead. Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans and, more worrisome for Democrats, 63% of voters not affiliated with either major party feel Clinton has been bad for the party.
Women believe even more strongly than men that Democrats need to find a fresh face for 2020. There’s little difference of opinion on this question among voters of all ages.
Seventy-two percent (72%) of blacks agree that a fresh face is needed, compared to 65% of whites and 60% of other minority voters. Blacks are far less likely than the others, however, to believe Clinton has been bad for the Democratic Party.
Even among voters who believe Clinton has been good for Democrats, 62% believe the party needs to nominate a fresh face in 2020. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of those who think she’s been bad for the party agree.
Only 40% of all voters believe America would be better off today if Clinton had been electedpresident instead of Trump.
Love him or hate him, voters agree Trump is charting the course for the country, and no one else is even close.
Voters see more chance for Trump’s reelection these days and strongly believe that impeachment is not the best strategy for Democrats running for Congress.
While many Democrats and their allies in Hollywood and the media continue to attack the president in an unprecedented fashion, few voters think Trump-bashing will pay off for his opponents in the next election.
Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.
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