Biden, Warren neck-and-neck with Joe Biden

The race to become the Democratic Party challenger to Donald Trump is tightening.

Democratic presidential candidate and former vice-president Joe Biden in New Hampshire. Picture: AP.

The race to ­become the Democratic Party challenger to Donald Trump is tightening, with a new poll revealing that Joe Biden is neck-and-neck with two left-wing rivals.

The former vice-president, who had a commanding lead for months, is in a statistical tie with senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the Monmouth University poll shows.

Senator Warren seems to have the most momentum, after months of energetic campaigning backed by numerous policy proposals­, in contrast to Mr Biden’s lacklustre performance peppered with gaffes. After forgetting where he visited just a week before, Mr Biden, 76, told supporters in New Hampshire: “I want to be clear, I’m not going nuts.”

The Monmouth poll puts Sen­ator Sanders, 77, and Senator Warren­, 70, both on 20 per cent support among Democratic voters and Mr Biden on 19 per cent, down from 32 per cent in the organisation’s June poll.

Senator Warren was up from 15 per cent and Senator Sanders up from 14 per cent. Kamala Harris, the California senator, was in fourth place with 8 per cent.

The three frontrunners and seven others have met the criteria to participate in the party’s third televised debate — they had to register 2 per cent in four qualifying polls and earn donations from at least 130,000 individuals.

“The main takeaway from this poll is that the Democratic race has become volatile,” Patrick ­Murray, head of the Monmouth polling institute, told The New York Times. “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.”

A spokesman for Mr Biden’s campaign said: “This poll is an outlier that is contradicted by every measure of the national average.”

Mr Biden still leads the Real Clear Politics monthly average ratings of all polls on 27.5 per cent, followed by Senator Sanders on 16.7 per cent and Senator Warren on 16.2 per cent. It suggests that Mr Biden remains the best-placed candidate to defeat Mr Trump, with 49.9 per cent support against the President’s 41.3 per cent, in an average of head-to-head polls.

The Times