Democrat leaders expressed uneasiness after a new poll showed President Joe Biden in a vulnerable position ahead of the 2024 election.
A New York Times-Siena College poll released Sunday showed former President Trump with a strong lead over Biden in five battleground states — four of which were beyond the margin of error. The poll suggested that voters have little confidence in Biden to fix what they see as a disastrous economy.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said the results continued his worries about the upcoming presidential election.
“I am concerned,” Blumenthal told The Washington Post. “I was concerned before these numbers. I am concerned by the inexplicable credibility that Donald Trump seems to have despite all of the indictments, the lies, the incredible wrongdoing.”
The poll had Trump beating Biden by 10% in Nevada, 6% in Georgia, 5% in Arizona, 5% in Michigan, and 4% in Pennsylvania. Biden led Trump by 2% in Wisconsin. All six of these battleground states were won by Biden in 2020.
The margin of sampling error for the poll was +/- 1.8% for all the battleground states combined. At an individual state level, the margin of error was between 4.4% and 4.8%.
Cliff Albright, the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said the black community’s support for Biden was not convincing in 2020 and could be a further concern in 2024.
“People fundamentally misunderstood what Black voters said in 2020,” Albright told The Washington Post. “The depth of support was never there. The enthusiasm was never there for Biden. We were very pragmatic. We knew he was the best chance to beat Trump.”
One core topic of concern for Biden in the battleground state poll was the economy. Respondents preferred Trump by 20% on the economy — 58% to Biden’s 38%. Only 3% described the economy as excellent. Nearly 60% of voters under 30 — a demographic stronghold for Democrats — described the economy as poor.
“President Biden’s campaign is hard at work reaching and mobilizing our diverse, winning coalition of voters one year out on the choice between our winning, popular agenda and MAGA Republicans’ unpopular extremism,” Munoz told The Washington Post. “We’ll win in 2024 by putting our heads down and doing the work, not by fretting about a poll.”
Simon Rosenberg, a veteran Democratic strategist, said the Biden campaign should be concerned about the lack of enthusiasm and support in his base of young and diverse voters.
“Once it’s Trump and Biden next year, a big chunk of that will come back. We need all of it to come back,” Rosenberg said. “There’s a distance between Biden and younger voters that we’re going to have to overcome. This is a weakness that we’re going to have to address. I think it is doable.”
