Joe Biden has a quarter of support among likely Democratic primary voters despite not having officially entered the race for president in 2016.
According to a recent Bloomberg Politics poll, 25 percent of Democrats nationally name the vice president as their first choice for the party’s nomination, indicating that Biden is within 8 percentage points of Hillary Clinton, who holds 33 percent of the vote.
Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders follows close behind with 24 percent of support among Democrats and Democratic-leaners. Eight percent of Democrats--a share equal to the gap between Biden and Clinton--define themselves as "uncommitted" to any single candidate at the moment.
While Biden has been reportedly mulling a presidential bid for weeks as Clinton’s support among Democrats has waned amid her personal email scandal, the vice president has yet to officially announce his candidacy. That hasn’t stopped major Hollywood fundraisers and lawmakers from expressing their enthusiasm for a Biden bid for the White House.
The poll, conducted between Sept. 18 and 21, indicates that nearly half of voters nationwide want Biden to run for president in 2016, while only 37 percent say he should not.
Biden’s favorable rating has also ticked up in recent months. Currently, a plurality of 49 percent view the vice president favorably.
Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has seen her favorable score decline by more than a quarter since April. Thirty-eight percent of voters nationally view the former secretary of state in positive light, while a majority of 54 percent express unfavorable opinions of Clinton. What’s more, a plurality--36 percent--view her "very" unfavorably.
Biden’s favorable score among Democrats is also significantly higher than that of Clinton. A quarter of Democrats and Democratic leaners now view Clinton unfavorably.