US: Frontrunner Biden drops in polls after first Dem debate ⁰

Former US Vice President Joe Biden, who is considered the favorite Democratic candidate to face President Donald Trump in the 2020 race for the White House, has lost some of his supporters following a weak showing in the first presidential debate last week, a new poll shows.

The CNN survey released Monday showed that Biden’s popularity among Democratic voters slipped to 22 percent after the debate on Friday, a whopping 10 percent drop since late May.

The veteran politician, who served as former President Barack Obama’s VP, still polled the highest among the two-dozen contenders for the Democratic nomination.

Biden’s loss was largely due to a surprisingly strong showing by Senator Kamala Harris, a California Democrat whose exchange with Biden on racial discrimination has been described by many as the highlight of the debate.

Harris, who aims to be the first black female US president, ranked a relatively close second to Biden with 17 percent support in the poll.

A separate poll by Politico/Morning Consult on Saturday returned similar result, with Biden’s support dropping to 33 percent from 38 percent before the debate.

This is while Harris doubled her support as she climbed to 12 percent from six percent pre-debate.

Tying with Harris at 12 percent was progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren in that poll. Warren shadowed Harris in the CNN poll with 15 percent support.

The poll also recorded declining support for leftwing Senator Bernie Sanders, who dropped to 14 percent from 18 per cent before the debates.

The Politico/Morning Consult poll however did not register any changes in Sanders’ and put him in second place after Biden.

Pete Buttigieg, the young mayor of South Bend, Indiana, came in fifth place in both polls, scoring four percent in the CNN poll and six percent in the Politico/Morning Consult survey.

Despite the drop in support, voters still saw Biden as the strongest candidate in the field, with 43 percent saying he was the only Democrat with a chance to unseat Trump.

Only 13 per cent believed Sanders could do the job, while Harris managed to convince 12 per cent of voters.