Most Democratic and independent voters said the Democratic Party's top priority in the 2020 election was beating President Donald Trump, a new poll conducted on behalf of The Daily Beast found Monday.
Ipsos surveyed hundreds of voters, and found the leading male Democratic candidates hold a 5 percentage point advantage over the two leading female candidates. Additionally, the vast majority of voters said the Democratic Party's top priority in choosing a candidate is whether they can beat Trump.
- 82% said the party's priority is to nominate someone who can beat Trump.
- 40% said nominating a woman is not a priority for the party.
- 38% said nominating a minority candidate is not a priority.
- 20% said nominating a white man is not a priority.
The survey also found most Democrats and independents, 74%, say they would be comfortable with a female president. But these voters are split over whether a female candidate would have a harder time than a man running against Trump: 39% agree it would be harder, 26% disagree, and 28% neither agree nor disagree.
One-in-five respondents said they agree with the statement women are "less effective in politics than men."
"Talk about learning the wrong lessons," Jen Palmieri, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.
"I think Democrats have a lot of trauma about the 2016 outcome and are suspicious that voters have an unease with women candidates," she said. "But the actual record shows a different story."