Elizabeth Warren Overtakes Joe Biden as Favorite to Win Democratic Party's 2020 Primary: U.K. Bookmaker

Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by ToadProphet
image for Elizabeth Warren Overtakes Joe Biden as Favorite to Win Democratic Party's 2020 Primary: U.K. Bookmaker

Elizabeth Warren has overtaken Joe Biden as favorite to win the Democratic Party's 2020 primary, according to a leading British bookmaker. Biden, a former U.S. vice president and senator for Delaware, is leading the polls, but has generated headlines recently for repeated gaffes, a foible of his.

Warren, the current U.S. senator for Massachusetts, is polling around third or fourth place depending on the survey in a wide and diverse field of more than 20 candidates.

The bookmaker Ladbrokes said it now has Warren at 9/4 favorite to win the Democratic nomination in 2020. Biden slipped to 11/4. Joint third are Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent socialist, and the party's California Senator Kamala Harris. Both are on 6/1.

"It looks like the betting market is going a little cold on Biden despite his general lead in the polls," Matthew Shaddick, head of political betting at Ladbrokes, told Newsweek. "Warren seemed to get a boost after the last set of debates and, in particular, seems to be performing well in Iowa."

One poll of the all-important Iowa Caucus by the little-known pollster Change Research, which conducts its surveys online, put Warren 11 points in front of Biden. This is a single poll and is likely an outlier. But there is evidence elsewhere of Warren's momentum in the race.

In a YouGov/The Economist poll this week of likely primary voters, Biden was the first choice candidate at 21 percent, putting him top. Close behind was Warren at 20 percent.

At the beginning of the campaign, Biden had a large double-digit lead over second place. And not all polls show that lead ebbing away.

A Morning Consult survey released on Monday put Biden at 33 percent, well ahead of Sanders at 20 percent, and Warren at 14 percent. The same poll showed an even stronger lead for Biden in early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Among these states, Biden was on 35 percent, Sanders was on 18 percent, and Warren was on 11 percent.

Despite their polling at low single digits, and even zero in some surveys, betters are still putting money behind entrepreneur Andrew Yang and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

"This still looks like a very wide-open race and political gamblers haven't given up on a couple of outsiders in Yang and Gabbard who continue to be well backed despite unpromising polling," Labrokes' Shaddick told Newsweek.

aurelorba on August 16th, 2019 at 16:49 UTC »

Outgoing presidents are alleged to leave a note for the incoming president. I can only imagine what Trump's 'letter' to Warren would be like.

ICreditReddit on August 16th, 2019 at 16:20 UTC »

If you don't get a massive justice-boner from the thought of Trump sitting in the Whitehouse having to do that hand over of the keys bit in front of the press, to the woman he calls Pocahontas, are you even really living?

[Edit] Seing how this comment got some traction, I'd like to insert my favourite catch-phrase. I enjoy debate, Sanders v Warren etc, it's healthy. But never forget how foreign actors managed to muddy the waters in 2016, don't let it happen again. The world is getting harder, more dangerous, more deadly.

"Vote Blue, no matter who. People are fucking dying."

VoteBernieFor2020 on August 16th, 2019 at 13:02 UTC »

I've been saying it for months: Joe Biden's entire candidacy has been one massive tautology: "Joe Biden is the most electable because he can beat Trump, because he's the most electable!" He doesn't hold a candle to other candidates in terms of political skill, policy positions, debate ability, etc. His defining campaign message, to the extent he has one at all, is "I have a black friend!!![Obama]". The problem is, with that kind of campaign, the second his support drops below a critical point, the tautology breaks and his campaign implodes.