(Bloomberg) — A majority of US Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents want the party to replace President Joe Biden as its 2024 nominee, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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Just 35% of this group prefer Biden for the nomination, while 56% say the Democratic Party should pick someone else, according to the poll, released Sunday. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 47% back former president Donald Trump for the 2024 nomination, while 46% prefer someone else.
In a head-to-head match-up, the survey found Biden and Trump essentially tied: Biden edged Trump by 2 percentage points, 48%-46%. Among registered voters, the numbers reversed to give Trump a two-point advantage.
Democrats’ preference for a candidate other than Biden at the top of the ticket in 2024 also was evident in a July survey by the New York Times and Siena College.
In that poll, nearly two-thirds of Democratic respondents, 64%, said they would prefer different candidate. Of that group, a third cited Biden’s age as the reason for their preference. At 79, Biden is the oldest president in US history.
Read more: Biden Snubbed by Democrats in Poll as 64% Want New 2024 Nominee
Biden said in an interview this month with “60 Minutes” that he’ll decide whether to run for re-election after the November midterm elections, which will determine whether his party maintains its House and Senate majorities.
“It’s much too early to make that kind of decision,” Biden said in the interview, which aired Sept. 18. “What I’m doing is I’m doing my job. I’m gonna do that job, and within the time frame that makes sense after this next election cycle here, going into next year, make a judgment on what to do.”
The Washington Post-ABC News survey put Biden’s overall approval rating at 39%, with disapproval at 53%. On his handling of the economy, approval was at 36% and disapproval at 57%.
Looking to midterms, 47% of registered voters polled would cast their House district vote for a Republican and 46% for a Democrat, about the same result as in April, the Washington Post said.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 18 and 21 on a random national sample of 1,006 US adults, including 908 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
(Updates with Biden-Trump matchup in third paragraph, adds earlier Biden comments on 2024 bid.)
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