Warren leaps ahead of Sanders in new Fox News poll where all top Democrats beat Trump

Elizabeth Warren jumps to No. 2 in Fox News poll

(Image credit: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)

A Fox News poll released Thursday found former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) in the same place they were in March — 31 percent for Biden and 8 percent for Harris — while the two candidates in between them swapped places. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is now in second place in the Democratic presidential race, with 20 percent, according to the new Fox News poll, while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) now has 10 percent. No other candidate tops 3 percent.

In March, Sanders was at 23 percent and Warren at 4 percent; she has gained ground steadily since then in the Fox News polls, and her "gains come at Sanders' expense," Fox News reports. Each of the top Democrats beats President Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, Biden by 12 points, Sanders by 9, Warren by 7, and Harris by 6 points, right at the margin of error. Trump doesn't hit 40 percent in any of the matchups.

"Biden and Sanders have held sizable leads over Trump before," said Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Republican Daron Shaw. "But this is the first time our poll results give Warren and Harris the chance to stake a claim to an electability argument as well." Warren fans have been worried about how she'll fare against Trump, according to a New York Times report Thursday.

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All of the top Democrats currently have net positive favorability ratings in the poll — Biden is +8, Sanders +7, Warren +6, Harris +1 — while Trump is at -14 (42 percent to 56 percent). "Voters who have a negative view of both Biden and Trump back Biden by a 43-10 percent margin in the head-to-head matchup," Fox News said.

The poll, conducted via phone Aug. 11-13, surveyed 1,013 randomly selected registered voters nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points for all voters, ±4.5 points for Democratic primary voters.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.