James Carville famously quipped "it's the economy, stupid," but The Wall Street Journal Poll released Sunday shows even the optimism there is feeding optimism former President Donald Trump is going to take over.
And it is because immigration is the No. 1 contrast between the sitting Democrat and the runway Republican primary leader and now the top voter issue for 2024, according to the poll.
Disapproval of Biden's handling of the border hit an all-time high of 65% in this poll.
"It's not like they're saying to us, The economy is wonderful; that's why we must reelect Biden,'" Democrat pollster Michael Bocian told the Journal. "They're just not as concerned about it."
Trump leads Biden in a head-to-head matchup by 2 points (47%-45%) and by 5 points in the wider field (40%-35%), but there is some momentum on the side of the economy. There are 31% of voters saying the Biden economy has improved in the past two years, which is a 10-point jump from December.
A full 43% say their personal finances are headed in the right direction (a 9-point bump since December).
Still, more than two-thirds say inflation is going in the wrong direction, and most notably, immigration (20%) is a 6-point leader over the economy (14%) as the No. 1 voter issue.
"Immigration is filling that void" on the economy, according to Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio to the Journal, "and immigration is Biden’s worst issue. And it actually has gotten a little worse."
The GOP messaging on border security is working politically, as 71% say developments in that area are headed in the wrong direction, according to the poll.
Other notable findings in the poll:
- 73% say Biden, 81, is too old for reelection.
- Trump, 77, leads Biden by 21 points on that question.
- 60% disapprove of Biden's handling of Israel's war on Hamas, up 8 points from December.
- Trump approval is at a two-year high in the poll, including holding a 10-point edge over Biden on the jobs they have done in the White House.
The Wall Street Journal polled 1,500 registered voters and 750 likely voters Feb. 21-28. The results have margins of error of plus or minus 2.5 and 3.6 percentage points, respectively.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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