Beto O’Rourke Narrowly Tops MoveOn’s 2020 Straw Poll

December 11, 2018 2020 Elections, Activism

An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, with Beto O’Rourke narrowly beating out Joe Biden. The poll, obtained by NBC News, shows a plurality of respondents — 29 percent — either said they did not yet know whom they would support or wanted someone else not listed among the group’s more than 30 potential candidate choices.

The most popular potential candidate was O’Rourke, D-Texas, who was selected by 15.6 percent of respondents, followed by Biden at 14.9 percent, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, with 13.1 percent. It’s another sign of O’Rourke’s surprising popularity among national Democrats and a potentially troubling indication for Sanders, whom MoveOn endorsed in the 2016 Democratic primary.

NEWS, via @aseitzwald: @MoveOn‘s first 2020 straw poll is out. The top line is that the field is, as the headline says, “wide open”—nobody’s got more than 16%. The next notable fact is that, right now, Beto’s on top. https://t.co/NVaB6Zgfvd

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) December 11, 2018