Voters say neither Biden nor Trump should run in 2024 - Reuters/Ipsos
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[April 25, 2023]
By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About half of U.S. Democrats say President Joe
Biden should not seek re-election next year and that he is too old to
run, a worrisome sign for the 80-year-old, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The three-day opinion poll completed on Monday, a day before he
announced his re-election bid, showed an American public unenthused by
the prospect of a rematch between Biden and his predecessor and current
leading Republican rival, Donald Trump, with about two-thirds of
respondents overall not wanting either to run again in 2024.
Among their own parties, 44% of registered Democratic respondents said
Biden should not seek a second term, compared to 34% of Republicans who
said Trump should not run again, according to the national poll.
Since taking office in January 2021, Biden has been dogged by high
inflation and low approval ratings. Just 41% of poll respondents -
including 74% of Democrats and 10% of Republicans - approved of his
performance as president.
His re-election campaign faces the challenge of sparking enthusiasm
among Democrats to ensure they come out to vote in November 2024.
Biden is expected to face scant opposition in Democratic presidential
nomination contests after he was credited with helping the party do
better than expected in the 2022 congressional elections. Democrats lost
control of the House of Representatives but retained a Senate majority,
thanks in part to voters fired up by the Supreme Court decision ending
the national right to abortion.
Biden is the oldest person to have occupied the White House and would be
86 at the end of a second four-year term. Sixty-one percent of
registered Democrats in the poll said he was too old to work in
government.
By comparison, only 35% of registered Republicans said Trump, 76, was
too old.
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U.S. President Donald Trump walks
without a mask and carries an umbrella while boarding Air Force One
as he departs Washington for travel to Florida, his first campaign
trip since being treated for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at
Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., October 12, 2020.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/
Biden beat Trump in 2020 by winning the Electoral College 306 to
232. He won the swing states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, and he
bested Trump by more than 7 million votes nationally, capturing
51.3% of the popular vote to the Republican's 46.8%.
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and was the
pick of 50% of registered Republicans in the poll, trailed by
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was favored by 24% of the party
though he has not yet declared his candidacy.
In a hypothetical one-on-one contest, Biden led Trump 43% to 38%
among registered voters, a lead for the Democrat that was just
outside the poll's 4 percentage point credibility interval for
registered voters. Biden also led among independent voters.
In another hypothetical two-person match up, DeSantis trailed
further behind, with 34% to Biden's 43%.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll gathered responses from 1,005 adults across
the United States, including 445 self-described Democrats and 361
Republicans.
(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)
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