President Joe Biden is slightly ahead of his predecessor Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race, but voters have a mixed view on whether democracy is working in the U.S., the results of a new poll published on Wednesday showed.
Just Ahead: Biden received 48% of support in a hypothetical two-way matchup with Trump, who took away slightly less than 45% support, according to the Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters. The relative positioning is virtually unchanged from the university’s February poll.
The March survey revealed that 2% said they would vote for someone else, a similar percentage said they were undecided and 1% said they wouldn’t vote. Another 2% refused to answer the question.
While the votes were along the party lines, among independents, Biden held the clout, taking away 48% support. Only 41% of the independents took sides with Trump.
The poll surveyed 1,407 self-identified registered voters nationwide from March 21-25, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.
When independents Robert Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West and Green Party’s Jill Stein were included on the ballot, Trump was ahead by a hair’s breadth, the poll found. Trump and Biden polled 39% and 38% of the votes, respectively. Kennedy, West and Stein received 13%, 3%, and 4% votes, respectively.
“There is no clear leader in either of these matchups because the leads are within the margin of error,” the pollster said.
“Way too close to call on the head-to-head and even closer when third-party candidates are counted. The backstretch is months away and this is about as close as it can get,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.
Views On State of Democracy: Forty-nine percent of the respondents said democracy was not working in the U.S. and 46% said it was working. A majority of Democratic voters (66%) seemed to think democracy was working and this percentage was far less, at 33%, among Republicans. Forty-five percent of the independents said democracy was working.
The bulk of the voters (68%) said they think democracy would end in their lifetimes as opposed to 21% who said it will not end in their lifetimes.
More voters are confident in Biden’s (48%) ability to preserve democracy than Trump’s (44%).
The outcome of Trump’s criminal trials mattered but not appreciably, the poll results showed. If Trump were to be convicted, 29% of the respondents said they would be less likely to vote for him. This percentage dwindles to 10% among the Republicans.
Biden’s job approval improved slightly from the level in February. The March survey showed that 59% had a positive job approval rating for the president, up from 57% in the previous survey. Negative approval fell from 40% to 37%.
Among the top 10 issues, immigration was picked as the most urgent by the voters, with 26% mentioning it as a pressing issue. Economy (20%) and preserving democracy (18%) came next, with none of the other issues reaching double digits.
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