NY.- Voters are broadly dissatisfied with President Biden’s job performance and oppose his re-election, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, but they also dislike his top Republican alternatives, reflecting a deep disconnect between what voters Americans want and the options available to them.
In the hypothetical general election matchups, Biden, who announced his re-election campaign last month, trailed the top two candidates in the Republican primary, former President Donald J. Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. However, none of them topped 45 percent in the poll, and many voters said they were undecided or named a different candidate.
In the Biden-Trump matchup, 44 percent of respondents said they would definitely or probably vote for Trump, and 38 percent for Biden. In the Biden-DeSantis matchup, 42 percent said they would definitely or probably vote for DeSantis, and 37 percent for Biden. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
As has been the case in polls for months, most Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters (58 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points) said they wanted the party to nominate “someone who not be” Biden in 2024, although that preference in principle does not mean that there is a real candidate that they prefer in practice. The poll did not ask voters about their main rivals, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Marianne Williamson, but Biden has led them by wide margins in other polls.
Trump had more than twice the support of DeSantis in the Republican primary, but not a majority: he had 43 percent and DeSantis 20 percent, according to the poll. No other Republican got more than 2 percent support, with 27 percent undecided.
In terms of voter opinion, the numbers for Biden were bleak. Her approval rating was a dismal 36 percent, with 56 percent disapproving of her job performance (including a 47 percent total disapproval). More than 60 percent said he lacked the physical health and “mental acuity” to effectively serve as president.
