Warren gains with South Carolina’s black voters: Campaign update

Elizabeth Warren is gaining ground among African Americans in South Carolina, according to a new Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.

When black voters were asked for their first and second choices for president, Warren more than doubled her backing, to 26% compared with 11% in July. Still, Joe Biden has almost twice as much support at 52%, down from 62% in July. The poll was conducted from Oct. 16-21 and has a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Bernie Sanders’s support among African Americans rose 2 percentage points to 25%, and Kamala Harris’s dropped from 28% in July to 17%.

When first and second choice percentages are combined for all voters, Biden leads with 46%, down 4 percentage points from July. Warren follows at 35%, up from 19% in July, and Sanders’s numbers remain unchanged at 23%.

Biden’s Iowa Director Thanks the Onion’ Satire (11:01 a.m.)

Campaigns know they have to meet voters where they are, which is why Joe Biden’s campaign has a satire site to thank for its youth voter outreach.

Biden’s Iowa State Director Jake Braun told the Des Moines Register that he was thankful to the satirical news site the Onion for its years of covering the former vice president. Braun said the articles, along with online memes of his friendship with former President Barack Obama, helped boost his name recognition with younger voters.

“So, oddly enough, who knew that we’d be able to thank The Onion,” Braun told the Register.

The Onion characterized Biden as a “cool dad” vice president and showed him “frantically cleaning up” the trashed VP residence, looking for his lost pet snake in the White House and asking President Barack Obama to bring him back “some of those real throwing stars” from his diplomatic visit to Japan.

Despite leading overall, Biden is polling poorly with youth voters compared to the other top-tier candidates. He had 8% support among voters 18-29 in Emerson University’s poll released Tuesday, compared to 34% who supported Bernie Sanders and 15% who backed Elizabeth Warren. – Emma Kinery

Biden’s Lead in CNN Poll Widest Since April (6:50 AM)

Joe Biden is rebounding, at least according to the latest CNN poll, which registered his widest lead since April among fellow Democratic White House candidates.

It’s an encouraging sign for the former vice president, who has been on the verge of losing his front-runner status to rival Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has the support of 34% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters, with Warren second with 19% followed by Bernie Sanders with 16%. Biden’s bump hasn’t appeared to harm Warren or Sanders, whose support stayed steady from the last CNN poll in September.

Instead, Biden has seen his support spike among moderate and conservative Democrats, 43% of whom support him now, up from 29% in the September poll. He also registered a 14 percentage-point gain among racial and ethnic minorities and a 13-point gain among voters 45 and older. The national poll, conducted Oct. 17-20, has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 5.8 percentage points. – Kathleen Hunter

Coming Up

• Cory Booker is scheduled to speak at the National Press Club in Washington at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
• Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke and Sanders are to attend a town hall hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens in Iowa on Thursday from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. local time.
• Biden, Booker, Buttigieg, Castro, Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren are set to attend a forum hosted by the Bipartisan Justice Center in Columbia, South Carolina, Oct. 25-27.

– With assistance from Kathleen Hunter.