Most Democratic voters say they've never heard of Michael Bennet. They still said they'd vote for him.
The 2020 Democratic debate stage is full thanks to what seems to be a complete fluke.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Co.) hit 1 percent for the third time in a CNN poll published Tuesday, securing one of the two ways Democrats can qualify for the first debates later this month. But that's only thanks to some respondents who say they've never even heard of the second-term senator, CNN's Harry Enten points out.
In the CNN poll, 44 percent of respondents said they were familiar with Bennet, but zero percent of them picked him as their top primary choice. Yet for some reason, enough people in the remaining 56 percent who don't know Bennet decided to pick him anyway, and that propelled him to a one percent poll showing overall.
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Bennet still isn't guaranteed a spot on the stage, seeing as those who receive donations from 65,000 individual donors and hit the polling threshold will secure their places first. So if any of the remaining non-qualifiers get a spot and either have a higher polling average or more donors than Bennet, he'll be knocked off.
Also in the poll, former Vice President Joe Biden easily held his first-place showing with 32 percent of voters saying they'd vote for him in the primaries. That's down from a previous CNN poll in March where he got 39 percent support. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) remains in second with 18 percent, followed by Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) with eight percent and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with seven percent.
CNN surveyed 1,006 U.S. adults, with 351 responding via landline and 651 via cell phone, from May 28-31. There was a 3.8 percent margin of error.
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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
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