Real Clear Politics 2020 Presidential Polls, No. 3

Last week, on June 26th and 27th, 20 of the Democratic presidential hopefuls squared off in a two-night, 10-candidate-per-night TV debate. As of today, July 2, Real Clear Politics shows (here) that the debate had a profound effect on how well the various contenders are polling. (See "Real Clear Politics 2020 Presidential Polls, No. 2" for how they were doing prior to the debate.)

Here's the crucial chart as of today:

Click to enlarge.

The crucial post-debate changes show up at the right edge of the chart. Joe Biden, though still on top, has dropped enormously. He's now polling at just 27 percent. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris has shot way up from her earlier low support level to 13.4 percent. The reason for both those changes is the way that Harris took Biden to task during the debate for failing to support federally mandated busing and for having worked amicably in Congress with southern senators who were white segregationists.

The number two Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders, has likewise lost ground in the post-debate polls. Elizabeth Warren, for her part, is still just barely in the number three position, having impressed on the first night of the debate ... but Harris, from the second night, is hot on her heels at number four. The number five candidate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, has declined in his post-debate support, even though I personally thought he did extremely well in the debate. All of the other Democratic candidates are coming in with less than three percent support apiece.