New entrant Biden surges in 2020 Democrat race: polls

Joe Biden has taken a commanding lead in the crowded 2020 Democratic presidential nomination race, polls showed Tuesday, boosting the former US vice president's standing as he began campaigning in early-voting Iowa.

A CNN poll had Biden breaking away from the pack of 20 candidates with 39 percent support among Democrats or Democratic-leaning voters. Liberal Senator Bernie Sanders was a distant second at 15 percent.

Progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, young South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas were bunched together with eight, seven, and six percent respectively.

Biden also came out on top in a Quinnipiac University poll with 38 percent support among Democrats and voters leaning Democratic.

Twelve percent of those polled by Quinnipiac backed Warren while 11 percent were for Sanders and 10 percent for Buttigieg.

California Senator Kamala Harris was at eight percent followed by O'Rourke with five percent.

The CNN survey signaled, ...