{"id":10053,"date":"2020-03-09T15:30:24","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T20:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/democrats-see-biden-and-sanders-as-very-different-ideologically\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:16:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T06:16:06","slug":"democrats-see-biden-and-sanders-as-very-different-ideologically","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2020\/03\/09\/democrats-see-biden-and-sanders-as-very-different-ideologically\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats see Biden and Sanders as very different ideologically"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders at the Feb. 7 Democratic presidential primary debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Joe Raedle\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n
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In the wake of Super Tuesday, the Democratic presidential primary field has narrowed to front-runners Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Democrats see big ideological differences between the two candidates, according to data from Pew Research Center\u2019s Election News Pathways project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents describe Sanders\u2019 political views as liberal (70%), including about half (48%) who say he is \u201cvery liberal.\u201d By contrast, Democrats are about as likely to describe Biden\u2019s views as moderate (31%) as they are to describe them as liberal (31%); 20% view Biden as conservative.<\/p>\n\n

About 15% of Democrats say they\u2019re not sure what Sanders\u2019 or Biden\u2019s political views are (14% and 16%, respectively). Uncertainty about their views is especially high among Democrats who are not following election news closely (31% for Biden, 25% for Sanders).<\/p>\n\n

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How we did this<\/h1>\n\n

This post studies how Democrats perceived the political views of Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the weeks before Super Tuesday. It uses data from a survey of 10,300 U.S. adults, including 5,771 who identify as Democrats or as independents who lean toward the Democratic Party. The survey was conducted Feb. 18 to March 2, 2020, and asked respondents to rate Biden\u2019s and Sanders\u2019 political views on a scale from \u201cvery liberal\u201d to \u201cvery conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

All survey participants are members of Pew Research Center\u2019s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative online survey panel. Panelists were recruited by telephone or mail so that nearly every U.S. adult has a known chance of being selected. The data is weighted to further ensure it reflects the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.<\/p>\n\n

Here are\u00a0the questions used<\/a>\u00a0for this report, along with responses, and its\u00a0methodology<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n\n

A Pew Research Center survey earlier this year found that nearly half of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters (47%) describe their own views as liberal<\/a>, compared with 38% who identify as moderate and 14% who call themselves conservative. The share of self-identified liberals among Democratic voters is higher than it was in 2012 and earlier, but little changed over the past few years.<\/p>\n\n

The new survey \u2013 conducted Feb. 18 to March 2 among 10,300 U.S. adults, including 5,771 Democrats and Democratic leaners \u2013 finds differences among Democrats in perceptions of Biden\u2019s and Sanders\u2019 political views by race and ethnicity, age, education and ideology.<\/p>\n\n

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White Democrats (83%) are far more likely than either black Democrats (47%) or Hispanic Democrats (57%) to describe Sanders\u2019 views as liberal. Larger shares of black (23%) and Hispanic Democrats (18%) than white Democrats (10%) say they are not sure how to describe Sanders\u2019 political views.<\/p>\n\n

When it comes to views of Biden\u2019s ideology, differences in views by race and ethnicity are more modest than in views of Sanders. However, white Democrats (37%) are more likely than black Democrats (24%) or Hispanic Democrats (22%) to view him as moderate. As with views of Sanders, a larger share of black and Hispanic than white Democrats say they aren\u2019t sure how to describe Biden\u2019s political views. (These patterns hold even among those who follow political and election news very or somewhat closely.)<\/p>\n\n

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