Biden holds slim lead over Trump and DeSantis in new poll
Ryan King
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President Joe Biden holds a slim lead over former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in a new poll after another survey over the weekend found him trailing.
In a hypothetical match-up, Biden tops Trump 45% to 43% and beats DeSantis 45% to 42%, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll; both leads are close to or within the margin of error.
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The survey gave a rosier outlook for Biden in terms of favorability relative to other polls but spelled some early warning signs for him as well.
A Washington Post-ABC News survey released over the weekend found Biden trailing Trump 38% to 44% and DeSantis 37% to 42%.
More starkly, the poll found his favorability underwater by roughly 20 percentage points. In contrast, the YouGov poll released Wednesday found that 43% approve of Biden, compared to 48% who disapprove.
The disapproval figure from Yahoo News/YouGov marks the lowest the survey has found since September 2021. In addition, 52% of Democrats said they’d rather see Biden become the party standard bearer than an alternative, the first time the survey found a majority on that question.
Biden is facing long-shot primary challenges from author Marianne Williamson and environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy Jr. but has consistently led them in polls.
Yahoo News/YouGov found reservations about Biden among some voters. At least 65% of respondents expressed unease about his “health and mental acuity,” and 64% said he’s “too old for another term as president” when informed that he would be 82 at the start of a second term.
Only 48% found Trump’s mental sharpness to be a concern in the poll.
Beyond age, voters were also uneasy about Vice President Kamala Harris. Only 32% said she is ready to take over the presidency, while 48% said she isn’t.
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Thanks in part to the Washington Post-ABC poll, Trump has a slight, 0.6-percentage-point edge over Biden in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate. He averages a 42.6% approval rating and 52.8% disapproval in the aggregate.
The poll comes just three weeks into Biden’s reelection campaign. It surveyed 1,584 adults between May 5 and 8, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.