Calls for President Joe Biden to step down from the 2024 presidential election have been met with resistance from the former president, who recently sent a letter to Democratic leaders showing his commitment to stay in the race.
A new 2024 election poll looks at how Biden fares against former President Donald Trump and how potential replacements would do.
What Happened: Biden and Trump have been the presumptive party nominees in the 2024 presidential election before the performance in the presidential debate by Biden led to calls for him to step aside.
Election polls after the debate have mostly shown more votes shifted to Trump with the former president also dominating betting odds and prediction markets as the Democratic party is partially mixed on their direction.
A new Emerson College poll shows Biden losing support. In the latest poll, Trump has 46% of support, compared to 43% for Biden. Eleven percent of voters remain undecided in the poll. In last month's Emerson College poll, Biden had 45% of support versus Trump's 46%.
When undecided voters are asked which candidate they lean towards, the poll splits evenly at 50% for Biden and 50% for Trump.
"Since before the first presidential debate, former President Trump's support remains at 46%, while President Biden's support has decreased two percentage points," Emerson College Polling executive director Spencer Kimball said.
Kimball said Independent voters are now favoring Trump 42% to 38% compared to Biden being favored 43% to 41% before the debate.
With third-party candidates offered on the ballot in the poll, Trump leads at 44% with Biden getting 40%. Six percent goes to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and 1% each goes to Cornel West and Jill Stein.
Read Also: Nancy Pelosi Urges Biden To ‘Make That Decision’ On Political Future: ‘Time Is Running Short’
Why It's Important: Along with asking voters who they would pick in the Biden vs. Trump matchup, the latest Emerson poll asked voters to pick in more hypothetical matchups.
Here are some of the highlights:
Trump 49%, Vice President Kamala Harris 43%, 8% undecided
Trump 48%, California Governor Gavin Newsom 40%, 12% undecided
Trump 48%, Hillary Clinton 41%, 11% undecided
Trump 48%, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer 38%, 15% undecided
Trump 46%, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro 38%, 16% undecided
The new hypothetical polls find that candidates being discussed as potential replacements for Biden might fare worse against Trump than the current president. Harris gets the same 43% of support, but Trump gets a larger chunk of support in the head-to-head matchup.
No potential candidate gets higher than 43% support and Trump's support doesn't drop below 46% against any hypothetical matchup.
It's worth noting that in the hypothetical contest against Gov. Shapiro, Trump gets the same total of 46% as he does against Biden, with a bigger chunk of voters being undecided. This could be due to Shapiro not being as widely recognized as the other candidates who have been mentioned as potential replacements.
While many have called for Biden to step down, including members of Congress, the poll shows that it might not matter at this point who is up against Trump in the 2024 election.
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