Majority Of Dems And Independents Want Biden To Drop Out, Poll Finds

Two-thirds of Democrats and a majority of independents want President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 White House race amid concerns about his cognitive health following a shaky debate performance last month, the results of a new poll show.

The survey from The Washington Post, ABC News, and Ipsos found 56% of Democrats said they think Biden should step aside and let someone else run given his debate showing, while 42% said they believe he should continue his re-election campaign and 2% skipped the question.

Beyond just Democrats, 67% of U.S. adults who participated in the poll said they think Biden should bow out, 30% said they believe the president should remain in the race, and 3% skipped the question.

The Post said the results “contradict Biden’s claim that only party elites want him to step aside.” It also noted that more than 7-in-10 independents who participated in the poll said they think Biden should withdraw from the race.

Fifty percent of U.S. adults said they view Biden less favorably because of the debate, which CNN hosted a little more than two weeks ago. Another 42% said there was no difference, while 7% said they think more favorably of Biden after the debate.

Respondents answered the same questions about former President Donald Trump, who faced Biden in the debate.

The vast majority — 88% — of Republicans said they think Biden should step aside and let someone else run given his debate showing, while 11% said they believe he should continue his 2024 campaign and 1% skipped the question.

Among U.S. adults in general, 50% said they believe Trump should bow out, while 47% said they believe the former president should remain in the race, and 3% skipped the question.

Respondents gravitated more to Trump (44%) than Biden (14%) when asked whether the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president applied to one candidate over the other.

With Biden’s debate performance notwithstanding, ABC News reported that Democrats stuck with the president 91-5% while Republicans stood by Trump 94-4%. Independents went 40% for Biden and 44% for Trump.

The survey also found that 85% of respondents see Biden, 81, as too old for a second presidential term, and 60% of respondents said the same of 78-year-old Trump.

Seventy percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents said they would be satisfied with Vice President Kamala Harris taking Biden’s place as the party’s 2024 presidential nominee.

A little more than a quarter of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents picked Harris, more than any other individual, in an open-ended question seeking suggestions for a replacement for Biden while 31% chose not to answer.

Pollsters conducted the survey from July 5 to July 9 among 2,431 respondents, according to a document on the results. The survey had a margin of sampling error of plus-or-minus two percentage points for the full sample as well as the sample of 2,041 registered voters.