Poll: Democrats eyeing a Biden 2020 presidential run

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Republicans are setting their sights on a potential threat to President Donald Trump’s presidential re-election bid after he made a stop in Indiana last week.

Although he hasn’t thrown his hat in the race, in fact, he’s already denied plans to enter for now, polls are showing former Vice President Joe Biden could become a clear front-runner for the party.

“One of the things that he is willing to go to states that Hillary Clinton largely ignored so a states like Indiana as an example,” said Elizabeth Bennion, IUSB political science professor.

Could Joe Biden connect with rust belt voters that overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in 2016?

The president carried Indiana by 19 points over Hillary Clinton back then, but could the Biden be a bigger threat to Trump in 2020?

“Biden has this persona of this working class guy and so he’ll certainly want to connect with that in these places where voters felt a bit ignored or disenfranchised or thought the Democratic Party was the party of the elites,” said Bennion.

Biden is connecting with likely Democratic Party voters nationally.

A CNN poll released Sunday shows he is the preferred candidate to take on Trump this time around.

“I think Biden has got an eye on what that means that he’s emerging at the top of these polls,” said Bennion.

But does his growing popularity with his base create a problem for red-state candidates like Joe Donnelly?

“Donnelly has always been a strong supporter of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and a vehement obstructionist towards the Trump-Pence agenda,” said RNC Spokesman Michael Joyce in a statement to ABC 57 News after Donnelly and Biden’s rally on Friday. “On the bright side for Donnelly, once he loses to Mike Braun in November, he’ll have more than enough time to mull whether or not he wants to be Biden’s running mate in 2020 to run against a President who actually delivers for Hoosiers in President Trump.”

“Well one of the things that Republicans are saying is that Donnelly must feel vulnerable even among his base to have employed Joe Biden to come out in terms of what that might cost him: well potentially some Republicans could be turned off but those people are most likely voting for Braun anyway so this is an attempt to fire up his base,” said Bennion.