Warren, Booker And Castro Favorability Ratings Surge After First Debate

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:11 pm

According to new polling released on Thursday, voters believed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker and former HUD Sec. Julián Castro turned in strong debate performances on Wednesday night.

Morning Consult-Five Thirty Eight conducted two polls – one before the first Democratic debate and another after – and Warren, Booker and Castro saw the largest spikes in their favorability ratings.

Warren saw her favorability rating jump by nearly ten points – from 63.4 percent to 72 percent – following her performance on Wednesday.

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Booker’s favorability rating jumped by more than ten percentage points, from 47 percent to 57.4 percent.

Castro’s favorability rating jumped by nearly 20 points, from 29.3 percent to 47.4 percent.

As The Hill pointed out on Thursday, “Other candidates also saw double-digit gains in their favorability ratings following last night’s debate, including Reps. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) and John Delaney (D-Md.), but those candidates largely saw concurrent gains to their unfavorable ratings as well.”

America is still getting to know most of the candidates

While the polling has remained steady over the past several months, with former vice president Joe Biden, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren – followed by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kamala Harris –  leading the pack, it’s clear that many of these candidates are still introducing themselves to the country.

With the debates finally kicking off on Wednesday – and round two set for Thursday night – millions more Americans will be tuning in to learn about candidates they’ve likely never heard of before.

In other words, while it’s clear that former vice president Joe Biden remains the soft frontrunner, the door is certainly open for one (or several) of the other candidates in the race to introduce themselves to the broader electorate and make a strong impression.

With the first debate(s) finally underway, the Democratic primary race has entered a whole new phase.

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