As November draws steadily closer, yet another poll is showing support for former president Donald Trump surging ahead of support for incumbent Joe Biden. According to a HarrisX poll conducted in the days following Biden’s State of the Union address, Trump is leading Biden by five percentage points (46% to 41%), with 13% of voters undecided.
When undecided voters were asked which way they lean, Trump leads Biden 52% to 48%. When Independent and third-party candidates are added to the mix, Trump still maintains his lead (41%), while Biden trails behind at 35%, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at 12%, and other candidates at 1% each, with 10% of voters undecided. When undecided voters were asked which way they lean in an expanded field, Trump still takes first place with 44%. Significantly, Trump leads among Independent voters in every scenario.
The HarrisX survey also revealed that nearly 60% of voters polled disapprove of Biden’s job performance as president, including nearly a quarter (22%) of Democrats. Nearly 60% of voters (including over a quarter of Democrats) said that Biden’s State of the Union speech served to “divide” the country and more than half (57%) of voters said the speech “raised questions or concerns” about the president’s age, including almost 40% of Democrats. A marginally smaller percentage said the speech raised questions or concerns about Biden’s fitness for office. A strong majority (61%) of voters polled also said that Biden did an “inadequate job addressing immigration during the State of the Union address…”
This follows a Rasmussen Reports survey finding that 61% of voters (79% of Republicans, 45% of Democrats, and 61% of Independent voters) believe immigration will be “very important” in November’s election. Despite all of the attention Democrats are dedicating to it, only 42% of voters (28% of Republicans, 66% of Democrats, and 32% of Independents) said that abortion will be a “very important” issue in November.
A Yahoo News/YouGov poll also found that voters weren’t impressed with Biden’s State of the Union address. According to that survey, Biden’s job approval was at 40% before his speech last week but dropped to 39% after the speech.
A slew of other polls have shown Trump leading Biden in the wake of the incumbent Democrat’s State of the Union address. A recent USA Today/Suffolk University survey found that 49% of voters approve of the job Trump did as president, while only 41% approve of Biden’s job performance. Another Rasmussen Reports survey also showed Trump is not only leading Biden (49% to 41%) but other Democrats teased as potential Biden replacements: Trump leads former First Lady Michelle Obama 50% to 43% and current California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) by a whopping 51% to 34%. Once again, Trump leads among Independent voters in a matchup against all three Democrats, leading Biden by 12 points (45% to 33%) in that demographic.
Pointing to polling data, former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said that Biden has “a devastating mountain” to climb in facing off against Trump in November. Gingrich explained that the president “has a problem with everybody because they go to the grocery store, they go to the gas station. Biden-ism isn’t working.” He continued, “Biden has got a huge problem when speeches don’t change and advertising doesn’t change, because people go to the store, and they say, ‘In my own life, I know what he’s doing to me, right?’” The former speaker added, “And if you’ll notice, people consistently now say that they were better off personally, better off under Trump than they are under Biden.”
For months, Biden has been floundering in nearly every major poll. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released last month reported Biden’s approval rating at 45%, with nearly half (48%) of voters saying he’s become worse as a leader. Like many current surveys, that one found that over half of voters approved of Trump’s presidential job performance and showed the former president leading the current president ahead of the November election.
Voters have been particularly disappointed with Biden’s management of illegal immigration, inflation, the economy, rising crime rates, and other issues. A Monmouth University poll (also released last month) found that 84% of voters consider illegal immigration a serious issue, including 61% who consider it “very serious.” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, identified illegal immigration as “Biden’s weakest policy area, including among his fellow Democrats.”
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
