More bettors at one British bookmaker are backing Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Party's 2020 nominee than they are any of the candidates actually running in the race, giving her better odds of winning than Senator Cory Booker and Beto O'Rourke, among others.
Clinton, a former secretary of state and first lady, is not a candidate in the party's primaries and was the Democratic nominee in the 2016 election, which she lost to President Donald Trump. Despite winning the popular vote by almost 3 million, Clinton lost the Electoral College.
At the bookmaker Ladbrokes, Clinton has seen enough backing by bettors to rise to the seventh favorite for the 2020 nomination at 20/1. Booker, a senator of New Jersey, is eighth at 33/1. O'Rourke, a former representative of Texas, is ninth at 50/1.
"We're baffled, to be honest," Matthew Shaddick, head of political betting at Ladbrokes, told Newsweek. "We've taken more bets on her to be the Democratic candidate than any of the other runners."
Amid speculation earlier in the year that she could enter the 2020 race, Clinton ruled herself out. "I'm not running, but I'm going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe," Clinton told New York's News 12 in March.
The odds reflect the view of the betting market. The shorter a person's odds, the greater the chance the betting market believes he or she has of winning the contest because bettors are placing money on them.
"She would be by far the worst result for us—i.e., the one we would lose most money on," Shaddick said. "Hence, her odds have come in from 50/1 to 20/1."
Leading the polls is former Vice President Joe Biden. But Biden is not the favorite in the Ladbrokes market for the Democrats' 2020 nominee. The favorite is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren at 6/4. Biden is currently the second favorite at 5/2.
In third place is independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, on 5/1.
"I've seen some speculation about what might happen if Biden had to drop out for some reason—perhaps that would leave a space for her to occupy in the field?" Shaddick said of Clinton. "Doesn't really convince me as a good reason, though."
There is a wide and diverse field of candidates in the Democratic contest, but it is slowly narrowing. The primaries will end with the announcement of the Democratic Party's nomination in July 2020, ahead of the election in November.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released last week, Biden has a 15-point lead over President Donald Trump among registered voters, at 55-40. Sanders led Trump by 9 points, 52-43, and Warren and California Senator Kamala Harris both held 7-point leads over Trump, 51-44 and 50-43.
Another poll by NPR/Marist and released on the same day showed Warren had the highest favorability in the Democratic Party among all candidates. The poll said 75 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of Warren. Biden had 71 percent favorability.
"Elizabeth Warren seems to be on the verge of starting to make significant and serious inroads into this contest," Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told NPR.
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