Former President Donald Trump owns a 4-point lead over incumbent Joe Biden while maintaining his solid foothold as the Republican front-runner for 2024 at 64% support, according to an Emerson College Poll released Friday.
Trump leads Biden 47% to 43% in a hypothetical presidential matchup. However, Trump's lead expands to six points with the introduction of other candidates, who siphon off more votes from Biden than Trump:
- Trump: 43%
- Biden: 37%
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: 7%
- Jill Stein: 1%
- Cornel West: 1%
- Undecided: 12%
The executive director of Emerson polling said the survey oversampled voters under 30 to "better understand their changes in attitude toward" Biden.
"In the oversample of voters under 30, 45% support Biden and 40% support Trump in a head-to-head matchup, while 16% are undecided. Within this group, there is a divide between voters under and over 25," Spencer Kimball said. "Of voters under 25, 48% support Biden and 35% Trump, while voters between 25 and 29 are split: 44% support Trump and 42% support Biden."
The survey found that a breakdown of Biden's 41% overall approval rating shows a chasm with voters between 18 and 24, where the president has a 35% approval rating. Voters between 25 and 29 have a 41% approval rating of Biden.
Meanwhile, Trump holds a 50-point lead over former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, 64% to 14%. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is third with 7%, followed by biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie with 4% each.
In a hypothetical matchup against Haley, Trump leads 76% to 23%.
"As younger Democrats distance themselves from Biden, Trump's formidable backing within the Republican primary is strongest among younger voters," Kimball said. "This presents a potential quandary for Biden, who secured a nearly 2-to-1 victory among young voters in the 2020 election."
The Emerson College Poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from Dec. 4-6. The poll has a margin of error of plus/minus 3 points with a 95% confidence level.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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