According to a Harvard/Harris poll conducted between November 27-29, respondents who identified as Democrats heavily favored former Vice President Joe Biden when asked which Democratic presidential candidate they preferred. But when former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was added to the mix, Clinton came out on top of all the current candidates, garnering 21% of respondents votes to Biden’s 20%.
Without Clinton, the vote showed Biden with 29%, Senator Bernie Sanders with 16%, Senator Elizabeth Warren with 13%, South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg with 8%, and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg with 7%.
But when Clinton and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were added to the list, the vote came out 21% for Clinton, 20% for Biden, 12% for Sanders, 9% for Warren, and Buttigieg and Kerry with 5%.
Harvard-Harris, top 5 current 2020 field among Democratic voters:
Biden 29
Sanders 16
Warren 13
Buttigieg 8
Bloomberg 7If Hillary Clinton and John Kerry get in race?
Clinton 21
Biden 20
Sanders 12
Warren 9
Buttigieg & Kerry 5https://t.co/KiEbT2ik7Z— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) December 9, 2019
Hillary is picking up steam with Democratic voters; A Harvard-Harris poll at the beginning of November asked the same question; once Hillary was added to the mix, Biden led with 19% of the Democratic vote, but Clinton came in second with 18%.
All of this is music for Hillary Clinton’s ears, of course; she and husband Bill have been coyly mentioning the subject in many ways for months. As The Daily Wire noted, after President Trump tweeted about Clinton in early October, the former secretary of state said the following to Judy Woodruff on “PBS NewsHour”: “You know, it truly is remarkable how obsessed he remains with me … maybe there does need to be a rematch. Obviously, I can beat him again. But, just seriously, I don’t understand, I don’t think anybody understands what motivates him.”
On October 24, Philippe Reines, a longtime top adviser to Clinton, spoke with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who commented, “So, I’m assuming what I just said and what we’re hearing is true, that if she thought she was the best position to beat Donald Trump, she would get in the race.”
Reines responded, “You know, she ran for president because she thought she would be the best president. If she still thought that now, if she thought she had the best odds of beating Donald Trump — I think she would think about it long and hard.”
Carlson said, “She’s not — she hasn’t foreclosed the possibility, I guess,” prompting Reines to say, “No, she has not.”
At the end of October, at an event at Georgetown University Law School, Bill Clinton mused, “She may or may not run for anything, but I’m never running for president again.”
In mid-November, Hillary spoke with BBC Radio 4’s Mishal Husain, where she pondered,“I think about what kind of president I would have been all the time. I think about what I would have done. How, obviously, I would have been different. How I think I would have been a better, more successful president.”
Clinton also spoke with BBC Radio 5 Live, where she stated, “I, as I say, never, never, never say never. I will certainly tell you, I’m under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it … But as of this moment, sitting here in this studio talking to you, that is absolutely not in my plans.”