The share of Democrats who want President Joe Biden to run for re-election campaign has now reached the same level of support that Republicans have shown for former President Donald Trump's candidacy.
For the first time since Economist/YouGov polls began asking — in July 2022 — if Americans want Biden to run again in 2024, more than half of Democrats say yes. Now, just about the same share of Democrats favor a Biden run (53%) as the share of Republicans who support another run by Trump (54%). Trump has generally enjoyed more stable support for his 2024 campaign from Republicans than Biden has from Democrats.
However, Trump is not currently the first choice of a majority of Republicans when they are offered alternatives. (The poll didn't ask an equivalent question about a potential primary challenge to Biden.) When shown a list of possible 2024 Republican contenders, 41% of registered voters who are either Republicans or Independents who lean toward the Republican Party say Trump should be the GOP nominee, while 35% favor Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has not announced he is running. Fewer (5%) support Nikki Haley, who previously has been the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and the governor of South Carolina; Haley is expected to announce her candidacy soon.
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on February 4 - 7, 2023 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens.
Methodology: Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel using sample matching. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given prior to June 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (34% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty Images (Photo by Anna Moneymaker)
