UPDATE: The poll is now closed! The official results:
There’s no way to shut off voting in the poll below, so people can keep tallying votes if they want, but they won’t be counted for purposes of the official results. 40,252 votes!
A full analysis of the results will be posted in the coming days.
Over 52,000 people voted two weeks ago, making this one of the best-attended measures of online intensity and support. In the last edition of this straw poll I omitted Joe Biden, deciding to only include announced candidates. In retrospect, I don’t like the decision. While he may be waffling on whether to run or not, let’s assume he is until he’s not. For better or for worse, his presence looms over the race in a way no other unannounced potential contender can match. Let’s vote!
Since people always ask, the following candidates have been relegated from lack of support (i.e., less than 1 percent): Tulsi Gabbard, Kirsten Gillibrand (despite getting three chances!), John Hickenlooper, John Delaney, and probably some others whose names I’ve suitably forgotten. Julian Castro, previously relegated, gets a new shot at hitting 2 percent today.
Barely holding on: Cory Booker (2 percent), Amy Klobuchar (3 percent), and Jay Inslee (3 percent).
If I’m otherwise not including a candidate, it’s because that candidate doesn’t merit inclusion. That doesn’t mean they won’t be included in future straw polls, but they have to catch fire first. See, for example, how Mayor Pete did it several weeks ago (at SXSW), riding that viral moment to a respectable showing in the last edition of this straw poll. Otherwise, asking for inclusion of your no-name, no-support candidate is a plea for free publicity, and that’s just not the purpose of this straw poll.