A majority of voters — 60% — say President Biden should “definitely” or “probably” be replaced as the Democratic candidate following his performance in Thursday’s debate, according to a Morning Consult poll released to Axios on Friday.
Why it matters: Findings from the poll of 2,068 respondents echoed whispers from Democrats about the prospect of replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate.
- Of Democratic voters, 21% say Biden should “definitely not” be replaced, and 20% say “probably not.”
- When the survey asked respondents to choose between Biden and former President Trump, 45% chose the president and 44% chose the former commander-in-chief.
The results were similar to those from a poll following Trump’s criminal conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to a $130,000 hush money payment. That shows “President Joe Biden has lost no immediate ground to Trump,” per Morning Consult’s findings, according to a Morning Consult.
By the numbers: Still, most respondents—57% of those who viewed the debate—said Trump outperformed Biden. This includes 19% of Democrats, 60% of Independents, and 93% of Republicans.
What they’re saying: Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster criticized the framing of the poll results, which still has Biden leading Trump by a point, and said, “Joe Biden is not dropping out.”
The fine print: Data from the polls conducted through online interviews were weighted to approximate a target sample of registered voters, per Morning Consult. The margin of error was +/- 2 percentage points.
