A large majority of Democrat-registered voters say they would back President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential primary should he seek a second term, despite mounting media coverage portraying him as unable to carry out his job.
Seventy-two percent of registered Democratic Party voters said they would vote for Biden if their presidential primary was held today, 20% said that they would support someone else, and 8% said they would not vote. Politico/Morning Consult polled 877 registered Democratic Primary voters, and 2005 registered voters overall, between July 15-17, with a margin of error of 2%.
The same poll found that 53% of Republican primary voters would support former President Donald Trump in 2024, and 23% would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (RELATED: POLL: Trump Holds Narrow Lead Over DeSantis In Michigan)
Morning Consult / Politico poll says 53% of Republicans & Republican leaners would vote for Trump in a GOP primary today vs. 23% for DeSantis etc., and that 72% of Democrats & Dem leaners would vote for Biden today vs. 20% for “someone else.”https://t.co/10XdLIcng4 pic.twitter.com/JSMlcH4FrA
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 20, 2022
Many media outlets are reporting that elected Democrats and primary voters alike do not want Biden to seek re-election in 2024. Biden would be weeks-shy of 82 years old on Election Day 2024, and 86 years old should he finish out a second term. David Axelrod, the chief strategist to former President Barack Obama, told The New York Times that Biden’s age is “a major issue” because he “isn’t as agile in front of a camera.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois have all been named as potential replacements for Biden.
The left-wing organization RootsAction has already pledged to spend more than $100,000 in support of a primary challenge to Biden, and the group’s founder claims that the president has not been “bold or inspiring” enough in pushing left-wing policies. Biden and Senate leadership proposed a $3.5 trillion package intended to expand government control over the healthcare industry and the energy sectors, but Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has opposed the package.
Other polls have indicated that large majorities of voters do not want Biden to run for re-election. A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll conducted in late June found that 71% of registered voters do not want the president to seek a second term.
The White House has pushed back on such data, saying that individual polls don’t paint a complete picture of Biden’s support.
“There’s going to be many polls, they’re going to go up, they’re going to go down. This is not the thing that we are solely focused on,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of a New York Times-Siena poll showing that 64% of Democratic primary voters want a different candidate in 2024.