Support for Elizabeth Warren nosedives after wealth tax gambit
Washington Examiner, Dec 5, 2019


Elizabeth Warren's fast rise in the 2020 Democratic primary field is over.

The Massachusetts senator's poll numbers shot up consistently in late summer and early fall, largely at the expense of first-tier rivals former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

But her rise in support also brought added scrutiny, including how Warren, 70, planned to fund her "Medicare for all" plan, which would effectively end private health coverage in favor of a government program. Unlike Sanders, 78, who forthrightly says taxes on middle-class earners would rise in order to pay for his proposed version of Medicare for All, Warren says hers would be covered by a wealth tax on individuals with fortunes over $50 million.

The more Warren's talked about the details, the less support she's earned.

A RealClearPolitics average of national primary polls Thursday placed Warren in third place, at 14.2% support, behind Sanders, at 15.6%, and 77-year-old Biden, leading the pack at 27.8%.

That spread is a dramatic reversal from two months ago when Warren was in a statistical tie for first place with Biden. At the time, Warren was 0.3 percentage points behind Biden, with 26% support, compared to his 26.3%.

Since then, Warren has faced a cascade of polls showing her support in free fall. A Morning Consult survey taken Oct. 7-12 found Warren at 21%. By late November, the same organization found her support at 15%. A CNN survey taken at the same time found Warren earning 14% of support.

Early nominating states are a particular concern for Warren.

The last three Democratic National Committee-approved polls of likely Iowa caucusgoers have shown Warren in a dead-heat for second or third place with Sanders and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37.


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