Sanders Supporters Would Vote for Trump Over Buttigieg, Warren, Harris

Among top Democratic contenders for the 2020 presidential race, a new Emerson poll found that Bernie Sanders surged ahead of Joe Biden for the first time, with the benchmark gay candidate Pete Buttigieg coming in third. The women who are running, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, all came in behind the men. Beyond where the candidates stand with voters, the poll also found that nearly a quarter of Sanders's supporters would rather vote for Donald Trump over any other Democratic candidate.

Sanders led the pack with 29 percent polled saying he had their vote while Biden was behind him with 24 percent. Buttigieg came in behind Biden with 9 percent while Harris and Beto O'Rourke were at 8 percent and Warren was at 7 percent. Entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro garnered 3 percent.

The poll found that 51 percent of Sanders supporters who voted in 2016 voted for Hillary Clinton while 7 percent voted for Trump and 23 percent voted for a third-party candidate. Nineteen percent of his supporters did not vote.

Of Buttigieg's supporters who were polled, 100 percent said they would vote for Sanders if he clinched the Democratic nomination, while 79 percent of Sanders's supporters said they would vote for the South Bend, Ind., mayor. Twenty-one percent who support Sanders said they would vote for Trump over Buttigieg, according to Forbes.

Director of Emerson Polling Spencer Kimball said of the results that "while still early in the nominating process, it looks like Mayor Pete is the candidate capturing voters' imagination; the numbers had him at 0 percent in mid-February, 3 percent in March and now at 9 percent in April."

Also, 26 percent of those who support Sanders said they would vote for Trump over Warren, 18 percent said they would vote for Trump over O'Rourke, and 17 percent said they would vote for Trump over Harris.