President Biden is heading into 2024 with a large coalition of voters leaving him behind, a poll released Monday shows.
The USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll indicates the president is trailing former President Donald Trump 37% to 39% due to his inability to hold down the coalition of voters that propelled him to victory in 2020.
The 81-year-old incumbent is hemorrhaging support from black voters, young voters and Hispanic voters.
Among black voters, Biden’s support has declined to 63%, down from 87% in 2020. He still leads Trump’s 12% support by a yawning margin.
Voters under 35 and Hispanic voters have jumped to support Trump, with the former president leading in both demographics.
Trump now leads Biden 37%-33% among young voters and 39%-34% among Hispanic voters, according to the poll.
Biden’s slip in the key demographics spells bad news for his reelection campaign, as other recent polls show him struggling to beat Trump in several swing states.
The president’s approval numbers remain underwater, according to the new poll. Merely 39% of voters said they approved of Biden’s job in the Oval Office and 58% disapproved.
He fared slightly better than Vice President Kamala Harris, who had a 33% approval rating with 57% disapproval.
The poll also shows some positivity for Biden in terms of the economy, which voters say is an important issue in the upcoming election cycle.
Twenty-nine percent of respondents said they viewed the economy as in recovery, up from 21% in October.
He also is the clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary and faces no serious challenge.
Biden is polling at 74% among likely Democratic voters, compared to self-help author Marianne Williamson at 9% and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) at 2%. Fifteen percent of respondents said they were undecided.
Phillips is aiming to get traction in New Hampshire – the first primary state in the country on Jan. 23 – where the DNC’s disagreement with the state over the voting calendar led to Biden not being on the ballot.
Come November, Biden’s challenge will be to get enough support in swing states and in the large number of voters that say they are dissatisfied with either party.
Seventeen percent of voters would rather vote for a third party candidate than for Trump or Biden, the poll shows, while 20% of black and Hispanic voters and 21% of young voters say they would cast their vote for someone else.
In a larger field of seven candidates, Trump jumps to 39% of support, compared to Biden’s 34%.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had the most support out of the third party options, with 10% of respondents saying they would choose him in the seven-candidate lineup.
Trump is currently the GOP frontrunner in national polls and is outpacing rivals former UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by over 50 points, according to RealClearPolitics.
In the USA Today poll, Trump is at 62%, compared to Haley’s 13% and DeSantis’ 10%.
Biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy is at 6% and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is at 4%.
The GOP candidates will face off on Jan. 15 in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus, where DeSantis and Ramaswamy have both said they aim to defeat Trump.
The former presidents is facing four indictments related to falsifying bank records after paying hush money to ex- porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and in cases related to retaining national security documents, attempting to overturn the 2020 election and trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Colorado and Maine recently decided to kick Trump off the ballot — decisions that his team is likely to appeal.
The legal battles haven’t diminished Trump’s support. His polling numbers started to climb significantly in March after Manhattan DA issued the first indictment relating to the hush money.
Trump’s support seems to be more fervent for the former commander-in-chief compared to Biden, as 44% of respondents said they would rate their Trump support as a “10.” Biden received a mere 18% of voters saying the same.
The survey was conducted Dec. 26-29 via landlines and cellphones, and had 1,000 likely voters as respondents. The poll had a margin or error of 3.1%.
