Beto O'Rourke beats Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in progressive group's straw poll


A poll published Tuesday found that when it comes to the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, members of one progressive organization don't lean toward former Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — they prefer Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas).
MoveOn, a progressive group, conducted a straw poll among its members to determine the favored potential candidate, NBC News reports. It found that O'Rourke is the preferred candidate of 15.6 percent of respondents. That's pretty far from a majority, and 29 percent of respondents said they don't even know who they support yet or that they support someone other than the 30 candidates they were asked to choose from. But it still puts O'Rourke ahead of Biden, who has led in most of these early polls but received 14.9 percent of the vote here.
It also puts O'Rourke ahead of Sanders, who received 13.1 percent of the vote. This is despite the fact that during the 2016 election, Sanders earned MoveOn's official endorsement and the support of 78 percent of its members, NBC News points out.
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The next most popular candidate in the poll was Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who earned 10 percent and came in a few points ahead of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who received 6.4 percent of the vote. Coming it at the bottom of the top 10 were former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who received 2.7 percent of the vote, and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who received 2.4 percent of the vote. Read more of the poll's findings at NBC News.
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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
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