Poll: Warren Overwhelmingly Leads in Support Among LGBT Voters

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 10: Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Wa
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Hannah Knudsen

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) leads in the Democrat primary among LGBT voters, a YouGov and Out magazine poll revealed.

YouGov and Out magazine collaborated to examine the Democrat primary preferences of LGBT voters, surveying 816 likely voters November 11-18. Respondents overwhelmingly chose Warren as their candidate of choice. She bested Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who came in second place, by double digits.

The Massachusetts senator garnered 31 percent support, followed by Sanders with 18 percent support, former Vice President Joe Biden (D) with 16 percent support, and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) with 14 percent support. Buttigieg’s fourth-place status is significant, as he is the only self-proclaimed member of the LGBT community in the race.

The remainder of the candidates saw single-digit support. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) garnered six percent support, followed by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) with three percent support. Andrew Yang (D), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro (D) saw two percent support. The remaining candidates saw one percent support or less.

YouGov Blue Vice President Alissa Stollwerk told Out:

Seventy-seven percent of LGBTQ+ Democratic primary voters identified in our survey as very or somewhat liberal, approximately 20 percentage points higher than the percentage of Democratic primary voters overall who identify as very or somewhat liberal in our surveys.

Out attributes Warren’s popularity among the LGBT community to her prioritization of LGBT issues – something she has incorporated into the bulk of her plans. For instance, she emphasized LGBT protections as part of her criminal justice reform plan and has called for “high-quality, affordable, gender-affirming health care.” She also floated mixed prisons as part of her “LGBTQ+ Rights and Equality” plan.

Stollwerk continued:

Any survey is a snapshot of a group of people at a given time. However, as far as we know, this is the first survey of likely Democratic primary voters who identify as LGBTQ+, and it hopefully will help people understand the viewpoints of these Democratic voters, what issues are important to them, and what they want to see in the next Democratic nominee for president.

More per Out:

The results themselves show the relationship between Warren and LGBTQ+ voters likely goes deeper than partisanship. She had the highest favorable ratings among candidates by a 10-point margin, with 54 percent viewing her highly favorably. Meanwhile, survey respondents also felt she had the best chance to beat President Donald Trump in a general election: 53 percent felt she could do so, followed by Biden (52 percent), Sanders (46 percent), and Buttigieg (29 percent).

But if the survey is good news for the Warren campaign, the results should be a cause for concern in the Biden camp. His unfavorables among LGBTQ+ voters were disproportionately high: 33 percent of respondents viewed him highly or somewhat unfavorably, a greater percentage than every other candidate except for Gabbard and Williamson. They both netted 38 percent unfavorable ratings.

Warren has been very vocal in her support for the LGBT community on the campaign trail, even thanking drag queen Shea Couleé for “representing” Team Warren at RuPaul’s DragCon in September.

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