The average of the polls throughout 2019, except for a few days in October, was the Vice President of Barack Obama and former Senator from Delaware, Joe Biden, at the top. He benefits from his popularity, experience and Obama’s still high popularity among Democratic voters. Biden has so far not been able to completely convince in the election campaign, and he is famous for being rhetorical in his shoes. Besides, his old age of 77 is a risk. As a representative of the moderate wing, however, he leads the field to be able to convince voters more than an exponent of the left. (NZZ video about Joe Biden)
This counts Bernie Sanders who could challenge Biden the longest. He has represented the state of Vermont in the Senate since 2007. Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has also enjoyed a high level of awareness since he, as a blatant outsider Hillary Clinton, surprisingly offered stubborn resistance within the party in 2016. The parties particularly committed left-wing continues to hold Sanders up, which is also reflected in the fact that the Senator regularly receives record donations. However, with his left-wing demands, he is no longer unrivaled in the democratic field of applicants – quite different from 2016. Besides, at 78, he is even older than Biden, and in the autumn he suffered a heart attack. (NZZ video about Bernie Sanders)
An exponent of the Democrats’ left-wing is also Elizabeth Warren , a former Harvard professor and now Massachusetts Senator. The 70-year-old was once registered as a Republican, but her experience as a bankruptcy law specialist changed her political views fundamentally. The centerpiece of their pointed left-wing economic policy program is the introduction of state health insurance for all Americans, which would replace the previously largely private system. Among other things, it plans to cover the estimated cost of $ 200 billion annually with a special tax for billionaires and cuts in military spending. The details of this project presented in the fall caused her survey values to drop after they had risen steadily in the previous months and Warren already looked like Biden’s most promising opponent. After “Super Tuesday”, Warren had to give up. (NZZ video about Elizabeth Warren)
After his poor performance in the South Carolina primaries, the former mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg . The 38-year-old had become a completely unknown to a promising candidate for the presidential candidacy. He surprisingly took the lead in the first Democratic presidential election in the state of Iowa in January, but in the vote in South Carolina at the weekend he came fourth with just over eight percent of the vote, which is why Buttigieg pulled the ripcord. He pledged his support to Joe Biden. Buttigieg had excelled in being a pragmatic, moderate applicant and emphasized the advantage of not having a Washington experience. As a war veteran, polyglot graduate from elite universities and a devout Christian from the Midwest, he was also trusted to address voters. However, at the age of 38, Buttigieg would have been by far the youngest president in history and the first homosexual to take office. (NZZ video about Pete Buttigieg)
