President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are statistically tied in a hypothetical matchup as both men seek to reclaim the White House during next year's elections, according to a new poll released on Wednesday.
The survey from the Economist/YouGov found that 44% of voters would support Biden and 43% would back Trump if the election were held today and the two men were on the ballot. The poll has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points, making the race a virtual tie more than a year out from the 2024 elections.
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Yet 40% of voters surveyed said that if the election were held today, Trump would defeat Biden, while 37% said Biden would defeat Trump. The former president leads all of his GOP primary rivals in national and state polls.
More than half of the participants in the poll, 53%, said they would support Trump over other Republicans running for president. The only other candidate to poll in the double-digit range is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), at 14%. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy came in third place at 6%, while former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence both tied for fourth place at 5%.
DeSantis leads his rivals as the top second choice at 26%, followed by Ramaswamy at 12%. However, 16% said they weren't sure who their second choice would be.
In a sign of their unpopularity, 52% of voters said they would be disappointed if former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were the GOP nominee, as did 47% who said they would be disappointed if Pence were the nominee.
The survey was conducted Sept. 10-12, just days before House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced an impeachment inquiry into Biden's business connections with his son Hunter Biden on Tuesday. The investigation will likely be a source of pain for Biden as he seeks reelection and attempts to redirect focus to his administration's efforts to improve the economy. Trump, who could very likely become the GOP's standard-bearer, faces 91 indictments across four criminal cases, with court cases set to take place in the middle of the primary nominating season next year.
The two men face high unfavorability numbers according to the survey, with 45% of respondents saying they have a very unfavorable view of Trump and 43% saying they have a very unfavorable view of Biden. However, 26% said they had a very favorable view of Trump, seven percentage points higher than the 19% who said they had a very favorable view of Biden.
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In comparison, only 35% said they had a very unfavorable view of DeSantis, who has lagged behind Trump in most polls, while 15% said they had a very favorable view of the governor.
A majority of the poll participants, 63%, said they didn't want Biden to run for office again, a statistic that is similar to other polling showing concern for the 80-year-old Biden's ability to govern, and 56% said they didn't want Trump to seek office either.