Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former vice president Joe Biden take part in a one-on-one Democratic presidential debate in Washington, D.C., Sunday night, ahead of Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Arizona. The debate, which was set to be held in Phoenix, was relocated due to the coronavirus and won’t have a live audience.
A poll of Democratic primary voters conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News shows a significant consolidation of support behind Biden, emphasizing Sanders’s inability to broaden his support the way Biden has over the past few weeks.61 percent say Biden is their preferred nominee as opposed to 32 percent who prefer Sanders
. In a poll conducted in mid-February, just 15 percent of voters identified Biden as their preferred choice. Biden’s swift transformation into consensus front-runner followed a decisive win in South Carolina, at which point multiple candidates who had been splitting the loyalties of the electorate dropped out and endorsed the former vice president.
But even after fellow liberal-leaning Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the race last week, Sanders’s support jumped just five points — to 32 percent — in a much smaller field. And the poll showed reason to believe it won’t grow much further: In the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted a month ago, 37 percent of Democratic primary voters said they had decided on a candidate. In this poll, 80 percent said their minds were made up.
The poll also underscored Biden’s support with one of the most crucial groups within the Democratic Party, black voters, who said they prefer him to Sanders 77 percent to 18 percent.
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