Over forty percent of Democrats believe their party will have a better chance of winning in 2024 if President Biden is replaced at the top of the ticket, according to a poll released on Monday.
Forty-four percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents want another candidate on the ballot, 36 percent want to keep Biden and 20 percent aren’t sure, a Marist National Poll found.
Among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, 50 percent believe former President Donald Trump gives them the best chance of retaking the White House, 35 percent opt for someone else and 14 percent don’t know.
And just 44 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing, while 49 percent disapprove.
In last month’s poll, 45 percent approved and 46 percent disapproved.
The Marist poll mirrors other recent surveys that have found Biden’s job approval ratings tumbling into the 40 percent range.
The president’s numbers have been going south since August amid questions about his leadership following the chaotic Afghanistan pullout, his stalemated legislative agenda in Congress, the administration’s handling of the coronavirus vaccines and the continuing drag on the economy.
Speaking at the conclusion of the G20 summit in Rome on Sunday, Biden shrugged off concern for his sinking numbers.
“By the way, look, the polls are going to go up and down, and up and down. They were higher early. Then they got medium. Then back up and now they’re low,” he told reporters.
“Look at every other president. The same thing has happened, but that’s not why I ran. I didn’t run to determine how well I’m going to do in the polls,” he said.
Still, the poll showed that Democrats hold a slight edge in generic congressional races, with 44 percent of registered voters saying they’ll vote for a Democrat in their district, compared to the 41 percent who will go with a Republican.
But that margin has narrowed since September when the poll showed Democrats had an eight percentage point advantage.
Asked about election integrity, 62 percent of Americans say they will trust the results of the 2024 vote even if their candidate loses.
But only 33 percent of Republicans will have confidence in the results, compared to 82 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents.
Asked whether they trusted that elections are fair, 86 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of independents have a “great deal” or “good deal” of faith but only 34 percent of Republicans agreed.
Americans have more confidence in their state and local election officials.
Seventy-percent of Americans said they were “very confident” or “confident” in the fairness of their local officials, including 91 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans.
What if their candidate lost in a 2022 congressional election?
Seventy-seven percent of Americans overall said they would still trust the outcome — as would 88 percent of Democrats, 77 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republicans.
The poll surveyed 1,209 adults between Oct. 18-22. It has a plus/minus 6.4 percentage points margin of error among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents and a plus/minus 6.8 margin of error among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
