The chatter about a very close presidential election may be hiding an unsavory aspect of the race, according to the results of a survey published by Pew Research on Friday.
Double Haters Double Up: One-fourth of the Americans surveyed (25%) held unfavorable opinions about President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump, Pew Research said. Only 3% felt favorably toward both candidates.
The proportion of double haters is the highest at this point of the presidential election cycle, dating back to the 1988 election, the pollster said. It was nearly twice as high as four years ago when 13% of Americans expressed unfavorable opinions of both Biden and Trump
The survey was conducted on May 13-19, ahead of Trump’s conviction in the New York hush-money case, and 8,638 adults were contacted for the purpose.
The second-most negative views about both the presidential candidates were in 2016, with 20% expressing unfavorable opinions about the then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Trump. Notably, no more than 10% of Americans had held unfavorable opinions about both major party candidates at this stage of the seven previous campaigns.
A little more than 36% of Americans had a favorable view of Trump but not of Biden, while 34% had a favorable view of Biden and a negative view of Trump.
Favorability Opinions On The Wane: The report noted that favorability ratings for major presidential candidates have been lower than in the previous elections during the past three elections.
Clinton and Trump in 2016, and Biden and Trump in 2020 as well as in 2024 have had favorable ratings below 50%, the report said. On the other hand, in every election held between 1988 and 2012, at least one candidate had a favorable rating of at least 50% at about this point.
Pew Research blamed the declining favorability ratings on negative partisanship. “Favorability ratings for candidates have become considerably more negative among members of the opposing party than they were a few decades ago,” it said.
Only 8% of Democrats had a favorable opinion of Trump vis-a-vis 6% from the Republican party, who held a positive view about Biden.
The survey also found that not only the presidential candidates but also the Vice President and leadership of both chambers of Congress did not elicit positive public opinion. Sixty percent held unfavorable views regarding Vice President Kamala Harris and 36% rated her favorably, while 3% said they hadn’t heard of her.
Thirty-seven of the respondents said they had not heard about House Speaker Mike Johnson and 25% said the same about Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Among those who said they had heard about both, the proportion of people who viewed them unfavorably exceeded those who held positive views about them.
The findings of the survey come with hardly five months to go before the election. While Trump’s MAGA stance and his legal travails have been his pushbacks, Biden is stymied by his economic performance and doubts regarding his mental acuity.
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