(JTA) — Jewish voters overwhelmingly favor former Vice President Joe Biden over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, a new poll finds.
In the survey conducted by Morning Consult, 47.1 percent of Jewish registered voters planning to vote in a Democratic primary or caucus cite Biden as their first choice, while 11.1 percent favor Sanders, who is Jewish.
The next three choices: Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, at 8.9 percent; Sen. Kamala Harris of California, 8.2 percent; and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, 7.3 percent.
Pollsters interviewed 15,770 registered voters who are planning to vote in a Democratic primary or caucus, 581 of whom identified as Jewish, between April 29 and May 5. The margin of error is 1 percentage point.
47.10 percent of Jewish voters planning on voting in a Democratic primary cite Joe Biden as their top choice. (Graphic by Laura E. Adkins for JTA)
Biden, first elected senator in 1972, has cultivated close ties with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and appeared to weather the pro-Israel community’s tensions with the Obama administration over the Iran nuclear deal and other disagreements.
Sanders, an independent and self-described “democratic socialist,” has defended Israel from attacks by the left but is also frequently critical of its current right-wing government.
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