Former Vice President Joe Biden is the top choice for Democratic voters in California, edging out home-state candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D), according to a poll released Wednesday.
Biden has support from 26 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in the state, according to the Quinnipiac University Poll. He is trailed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Harris, who have 18 percent and 17 percent support, respectively.
{mosads}They are followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who each had support from 7 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters. No other candidate topped 4 percent support in the poll.
The survey also found that 66 percent of all California voters, including 67 percent of women and 71 percent of Democrats, believe the allegations several women have brought against Biden recently are not a serious issue. Several women have come forward in recent weeks to say the former vice president touched them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable.
California will have a greater influence in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary than in past years because it moved its electoral contest up to March.
Harris has sought to retain top-tier status in the crowded Democratic primary field after launching her White House bid in January. Before she became a senator, Harris served as California’s attorney general, and she has never lost an election in the state.
Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,005 California voters from April 3 to April 8 via landlines and cellphones with an overall margin of error of 4.1 percentage points. The survey included 482 Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters with a margin of error of 5.9 percentage points.