A new survey found that the majority of voters for President Joe Biden in 2024 are doing so to prevent former President Donald Trump from retaking the White House, Breitbart reported. The same poll found that Trump is beating the incumbent by two points despite his recent felony conviction.
Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee against the 81-year-old incumbent Democrat. The Economist/YouGov survey, conducted June 9-11, 2024, posed the question, "Would you say you are mostly voting FOR Joe Biden or AGAINST Donald Trump?"
Among all respondents, 51% reported their vote for Biden was "AGAINST" Trump's presidential bid over the 48% who chose to vote "FOR" the Democrat. Shockingly, 70% of independents said they were voting "AGAINST" Trump by pulling the lever for Biden.
When the same question was posed to Trump voters, 67% reported that they were voting "FOR" Trump. Only 32% said they would cast their vote for the Republican "AGAINST" Biden.
Among independents who were likely to vote for Trump, 62% saw their vote as one "FOR" Trump compared to 35% who wanted to vote "AGAINST" Biden. This means that the former president has supporters who are enthusiastically casting their ballots for their favorite candidate rather than against another.
Notably, the same poll showed that those who intend to vote for Trump are more excited to do so than those who are voting for Biden. Seventy-one percent of Trump's voters reported being extremely or very enthusiastic about casting a ballot for him compared to just 58% of Biden's voters.
NEW: Economist/YouGov Poll, June 9-11
% who are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for president in November
Trump supporters: 71%
Biden supporters: 58%https://t.co/0qKPyURQme pic.twitter.com/poJSQc0fit— YouGov America (@YouGovAmerica) June 12, 2024
These results came in the aftermath of Trump's 34 felony convictions in his New York trial. In any other race, this would have sunken the candidate except for the fact that Biden is terribly unpopular.
Biden has an uphill battle to convince voters he's the man for the job as Americans understand the disaster his administration has been. The president's only hope now is a spectacular showing in the upcoming debates, Howard Kurtz predicted in a Fox News opinion piece.
"The pressure is on Biden, who’s drilling with former top aide Ron Klain, to show that he’s aggressive and feisty as well as knowledgeable. Trump, who is doing only informal prep, will be hailed by his base no matter what he says or does," Kurtz predicted.
"Biden is really running out of time to change the narrative of the race. The debate will probably be a wash, but it’s his only shot. Otherwise, the frozen campaign will wind up freezing him out," Kurtz later concluded.
Even USA Today had to admit that Biden will have a narrow path to victory against Trump in November. The crucial 270 electoral votes required to win means many of the so-called battleground states must go primarily to one candidate over the other.
Despite the continued attacks, Trump has been polling better in states he lost to Biden in 2020, especially in the Sunbelt and Georgia. Biden could hope to make up ground by winning Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, but redistricting has hit the Democrats hard in those states as well.
With everything the left has thrown at Trump, this should be a runaway win for Biden. Instead, surveys show that the American people are still committed to voting for Trump just to see him in the White House again.
