Sen. Bernie Sanders has an 18-percentage point lead in the Democrats' presidential primary in California, according to a new poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
According to the poll of 1,702 adults in the state, the Vermont independent senator netted 32% of likely Democratic primary voters, reports The Washington Post.
He was followed by:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden, 14%.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 13%.
- Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg and ex-South Bend Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 12% each.
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar, 5%.
- Billionaire activist Tom Steyer, 3%.
- Rep. Tulsi Gabbard 1%.
California is the largest of the 14 states in play in the March 3 Super Tuesday primaries. The state will send 415 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. It will take 1,991 delegates to win the party’s presidential nomination, according to the Democratic National Committee.
The PPI poll comes as a Washington Post-ABC News poll also released on Wednesday shows Sanders ahead nationally with a 16 point lead, at 32% over Biden, with 16%.
In the California polling, Sanders carried a large lead among self-identified liberal voters, at 40%. He and Biden were in a virtual tie among moderate or conservative voters, with Biden getting 23% to Sanders' 20%.
Meanwhile, the California poll showed trouble for both Biden and Warren, who both went down by 10 percentage points since an institute poll in January.
The poll, conducted from Feb. 7-17, carried a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7%.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.