Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have surged into a virtual three-way tie with former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, according to a Monmouth University poll released on Monday.
Sanders gained 6 percentage points from Monmouth’s latest survey in June, while Warren picked up 5 points to both catch up with Biden, who dropped 13 points from the most recent poll.
Sanders and Warren are now both at 20 percent, while Biden is at 19 percent. Sen. Kamala Harris came in at a distant fourth, with 8 percent.
The poll was a blow to the hopes of several candidates who hoped to make the debate stage next month, according to NBC News.
Billionaire Tom Steyer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and author Marianne Williamson were hoping some last-minute surveys would push them across the threshold, with the cutoff just two days away.
“The main takeaway from this poll is that the Democratic race has become volatile,” said Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray. “Liberal voters are starting to cast about for a candidate they can identify with. Moderate voters, who have been paying less attention, seem to be expressing doubts about Biden.”
Murray added that moderate voters appear to be “swinging more toward one of the left-leaning contenders with high name recognition rather than toward a lesser known candidate who might be more in line with them politically.”
The Monmouth University Poll surveyed 298 registered voters who identify as Democrats or Democratic-leaning from August 16-20. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.