Trump holds lead over Biden in 2024 race — but most Americans ‘want someone new’: poll
Former President Donald Trump has opened up a lead of six percentage points over President Biden in one of the first national polls released since his victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.
Trump leads Biden, 40% to 34%, in the Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday, with the remainder uncertain of their choice or planning to vote for someone else or not at all.
The 45th president’s polling lead held even when respondents were given the option of voting for third-part candidates such as environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In that hypothetical three-way fight, Trump still leads Biden by six percentage points, 36% to 30%, while RFK Jr. attracts 8% support.
Trump, 77, also holds a large national lead over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the only major candidate standing against him in the Republican primary.
The former president has 64% support to Haley’s 19% as both contenders eye the Feb. 24 South Carolina contest.
Most respondents were dissatisfied with the prospect of a rematch of the 2020 election between Trump and Biden, with 67% agreeing that they are “tired of seeing the same candidates in presidential elections and want someone new.”
However, just 18% indicated they would not vote at all if Trump and Biden were their two main choices.
Boding poorly for Biden, 70% of voters, including nearly half of Democrats, felt that he shouldn’t be vying for re-election, while 56% said the same of Trump, including around a third of Republicans.
Voters also raised concerns about both Biden’s and Trump’s age. A whopping 75% of those surveyed said Biden is too old for government service, while 50% said the same about Trump.
Biden, 81 is already the oldest president in US history. He would be 86 at the end of a hypothetical second term, should he serve a full your years.
Trump, 77, would be 82 at the end of a second term, and would overtake Biden as the oldest-ever president by a few months should he win in November and serve out a full term.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,250 US adults Jan. 22-24, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus three percentage points.