YouGov poll finds Biden with 50 percent of black vote

Half of black Democratic primary voters say they plan to support former Vice President Joe Biden in the party’s presidential nominating contest, according to an Economist/YouGov poll released Thursday.

The 50 percent figure represents an outsize share of support among a crucial and highly sought-after Democratic voter bloc. Biden’s closest competition among black voters was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who trailed in a distant second place with 10 percent, according to the survey.

{mosads}In third place was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, with 7 percent support, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) are tied for fourth among black voters, at 4 percent each.

Biden, who served as vice president under the first black president in U.S. history, has consistently polled well with black voters, who make up a key voting bloc for Democrats. A previous Economist/YouGov poll released last week showed the former vice president with 45 percent among those voters.

Meanwhile, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), who has stepped up efforts to court black voters in recent weeks, scored only 1 percent support among black voters in the most recent Economist/YouGov survey — a decrease from the 3 percent he took in the previous poll.

Warren, however, appears to be outperforming Biden among white voters, with 22 percent saying that the Massachusetts senator is their candidate of choice. Eighteen percent of white voters chose Biden, while Sanders took 13 percent, according to the most recent Economist/YouGov poll.

Overall, Biden is the top choice for Democrats in the poll, with 26 percent supporting the former vice president. Warren trails at 16 percent and Sanders at 12 percent, with Buttigieg following at 8 percent and Harris at 6 percent.

The survey is based on Web-based interviews with 1,500 U.S. adults, including 1,107 registered voters. It was conducted from June 9-11 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.