Poll: 67% of Americans say Biden should bow out of presidential race
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President Biden speaking in the White House on July 10. Photo: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A majority of voters (67%) said President Biden should step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll published Thursday.
Why it matters: It's another survey showing that majorities of voters believe Biden should bow out following his performance in last month's debate against former President Trump.
- Recent Morning Consult and CBS News polls found that 60% and 72% of voters, respectively, believe Biden should not be running.
- Other recent polls and have found Biden's standing against Trump slipping, while political forecasts have tipped multiple crucial swing states in Trump's favor.
Context: Two weeks after the debate, Biden continues to face new calls to step down from members of Congress, major donors and other prominent Democrats.
- He has insisted he will remain in the 2024 presidential race.
By the numbers: Majorities across multiple groups — including Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (62%) and people who have a favorable opinion of Biden personally (54%) — said they believe Biden should withdraw, according to the poll.
- Among the people who said they will vote for Biden in November, 81% of them said they believe he is too old for second term and only 44% said he should continue.
- The survey of 2,431 adults also found that half of Americans said the debate left them with a less favorable opinion of Biden.
Yes but: Half of Americans also said Trump should step aside over his debate performance.
- Nearly 60% believed both Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, are too old for another term.
Zoom in: Despite Biden's debate performance, he and Trump remain essentially tied among all Americans if the election were to take place today, with Biden at 46% and Trump, 47%.
- Those results were similar to those in a ABC/Ipsos poll published in April.
Zoom out: Vice President Kamala Harris led Trump slightly in the poll if she replaced Biden and the vote were held today.
- Harris, who may be in the best position to assume the nomination should Biden step aside, polled better against Trump with women and Hispanic people than Biden did.
The big picture: Harris led in who Democrats and Democratic leaners preferred to replace Biden if he withdraws.
- 29% named her as their preference, though over 30 candidates were also named as the leading choices among voters.
- Overall, 70% of Democrats said they would be satisfied with Harris if she were nominated.
- However, 53% of overall Americans said they would not be satisfied with Harris being nominated.
Methodology: This ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll was conducted online between July 5 and 9, 2024, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 2,431 adults.
Partisan divisions are 32%-29%-27%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points, including the design effect, for the full sample.
Go deeper: Scoop: Schumer open to dumping Biden in 2024
