Updated 16 hours ago
60% of voters want Biden replaced as candidate after debate, poll says
President Biden at a campaign event at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28, 2024. Photo: Cornell Watson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A majority of voters — 60% — say President Biden should "definitely" or "probably" be replaced as the Democratic candidate following his performance in
Thursday's debate, per a Morning Consult
poll released to Axios Friday.
Why it matters: Findings from the poll of 2,068 respondents echoed
whispers from Democrats about the prospect of replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate.
- Of Democratic voters, 21% say Biden should "definitely not" be replaced, and 20% say "probably not."
When the survey asked respondents to choose between Biden and former President Trump, 45% chose the president and 44% chose the former commander-in-chief.
- The results were similar to those from a poll following Trump's criminal conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to a $130,000 hush money payment.
- That shows "President Joe Biden has lost no immediate ground to Trump," per Morning Consult's findings.
By the numbers: Still, most respondents—57%, of those who viewed the debate—said Trump outperformed Biden. That includes 19% of Democrats, 60% of Independents and 93% of Republicans.
What they're saying: Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster criticized the framing of the poll results, which still has Biden leading Trump by a point, and said "Joe Biden is not dropping out."
The fine print: Data from the polls conducted through online interviews were weighted to approximate a target sample of registered voters, per Morning Consult. The margin of error was +/- 2 percentage points.