Who Are The Supporters For Each Democratic Candidate?

The political pundits love to argue about who is supporting each of the Democratic candidates. For instance, they will tell you that young people support Bernie Sanders -- even though many young people supported other candidates in the New Hampshire primary.

The respected Pew Research Center tried to find out the answer to that, and they did it a little more scientifically. They questioned 7,013 Democrats and Democratically-leaning Independents between January6th and 19th. Their findings have a margin of error of 1.8 points.

Here is what they found about the supporters of five leading Democratic candidates:

Joe Biden supporters

• The former vice president draws comparatively high support from black adults and older Democratic voters. Nearly three-in-ten Biden supporters are black (28%), compared with smaller shares among those who back Michael Bloomberg (18%), Bernie Sanders (13%), Elizabeth Warren (12%) and Pete Buttigieg (1%). Biden’s supporters also include a larger share of voters ages 65 and older, compared with the backers of most of the other candidates.
• Most Biden supporters prioritize finding common ground with Republicans, even if it means giving up some things that Democrats want. Around seven-in-ten of his backers (72%) favor this approach over pushing hard for policies that Democrats want. Those who back Warren (53%) and Sanders (45%) are far less likely to take this view, though Bloomberg and Buttigieg supporters more closely resemble Biden’s in this respect.
• Biden supporters are more likely than backers of most other candidates to say illegal immigration is a very or moderately big problem in the country. Around six-in-ten Biden supporters (59%) take this view, compared with smaller shares of those who support Buttigieg (41%), Sanders (36%) and Warren (36%). Bloomberg supporters are about as likely as Biden backers to hold this view (61%).

  Bernie Sanders supporters

  • Around a third of Sanders supporters (32%) are under the age of 30, a higher share than among supporters of Warren (18%), Buttigieg (8%), Bloomberg (7%) and Biden (6%).
  • About half of Sanders supporters (54%) prioritize pushing hard for policies that Democrats want over finding common ground with Republicans. Among all Democratic voters, just 35% favor this approach.
  • A slim majority (55%) of Sanders supporters say billionaires are a bad thing for the country, a view also held by 49% of Warren supporters. Buttigieg, Biden and Bloomberg supporters are much less likely to take this position.

    Elizabeth Warren supporters

    • Warren supporters are by and large well educated and politically liberal. When it comes to ideology, liberals make up a larger share of Warren’s supporters (74%) than any other Democratic candidate’s supporters, including those who back Sanders (61%).
    • Among Warren supporters, 53% prefer that a candidate find common ground with the GOP, while 46% prefer someone who will push hard for Democratic policies. The share who want a candidate to push hard for Democratic priorities is slightly lower than the share of Sanders supporters who say this (54%), but is significantly higher than the shares of Biden, Buttigieg and Bloomberg supporters who take this view.
    • Eight-in-ten Warren backers (80%) see economic inequality as a very big problem in the country today, similar to the share of Sanders supporters who say this (77%), and higher than the share of Biden (66%) and Buttigieg (65%) supporters with this view.

    Pete Buttigieg supporters

    • The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, counts a high share of college graduates among his supporters. Around six-in-ten Buttigieg backers (61%) have a four-year college degree or more education – equal to the share among Warren supporters (61%), but higher than the share among supporters of Bloomberg (45%), Biden (37%) and Sanders (36%).
    • Even more than Biden supporters, backers of Buttigieg prioritize finding common ground with Republicans even if it means giving up some things that Democrats want. Around eight-in-ten Buttigieg backers (82%) favor this approach over pushing hard for policies that Democrats want, even if it makes it much harder to get some things done. (Among Biden supporters, 72% say this.)
    • While around three-quarters of Warren (76%) and Sanders (74%) supporters say the government should provide more assistance to people in need, Buttigieg supporters are divided on this question: 48% say the government should provide more assistance, while 45% say it is providing about the right amount of assistance.

    Michael Bloomberg supporters

    • Bloomberg supporters are decidedly less liberal than the backers of most other Democratic candidates. Just 29% of Bloomberg supporters describe themselves as liberal; a majority identify as moderate or conservative.
    • Like Buttigieg and Biden supporters, a clear majority of Bloomberg backers (79%) want a candidate who will prioritize finding common ground with Republicans, even if it means giving up some things Democrats want.
    • Most Bloomberg supporters (69%) say the fact that some people in the U.S. have personal fortunes of a billion dollars or more is neither a good nor a bad thing for the country; just 16% call it a bad thing. Sanders and Warren supporters are far more likely to say billionaires are a bad thing for the country (55% and 49%, respectively, say this).