Phillips trailing Williamson in new poll after campaign launch

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) is trailing both President Biden and progressive candidate Marianne Williamson in the Democratic presidential primary, according to a recent poll.  

A Quinnipiac University national poll released on Wednesday showed Phillips receiving 6 percent support among Democrats and those leaning Democrat, while Biden brought in 77 percent and Williamson received 8 percent. “The Young Turks” founder Cenk Uygur received 2 percent. 

The survey also found that 63 percent of those voters said they could change their mind depending on what happens leading up to the primary. Thirty-four percent, however, said they were firmly set on their choice for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. 

Still, the polling underscores the steep climb that Phillips faces in a Democratic primary after he launched a longshot bid to take on the president last Friday.

Though Biden has grappled with an underwater approval rating and polling where voters have pointed to age as a major concern for the president, he’s faced little in the way of a competitive primary challenge.  

Since Phillips’s announcement, members of the party have expressed anxiety and outrage over his decision to launch a bid. A source close to the Biden campaign, however, told The Hill last week that it had greeted the Phillips’s news “with a shrug.” 

The Quinnipiac University national poll was conducted Oct. 26-30 with 1,610 registered voters surveyed.

The margin of error overall is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points. The margin of error specifically for the 695 Democratic and leaning Democratic voters surveyed was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.