Many Americans are unenthusiastic about their main choices in the 2024 presidential election, with 17% of registered voters holding unfavorable opinions of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the April 6 - 9 Economist / YouGov Poll.
Most of these registered voters who have somewhat or strongly unfavorable opinions of both major candidates say they would cast a vote in a race with Biden and Trump on the ballot. Right now 27% of these voters who dislike both Biden and Trump say they would pick Biden, 17% would pick Trump, and 34% say they would vote for another candidate. Another 15% aren't sure and just 8% say they wouldn't vote.
Economist / YouGov polls over the past year have shown a consistently close race between Biden and Trump among voters who dislike both — a group that is roughly one-quarter Democrats, one-quarter Republicans, and one-half Independents.
This close race among voters who have unfavorable opinions of both candidates is a change from the 2020 contest between Biden and Trump, when Biden had a consistent lead among voters who disliked both candidates.
Most voters have a favorable opinion about one of Biden or Trump, but not both. 39% are favorable about Trump but not Biden, and 38% are favorable about Biden but not Trump.
But Trump's supporters are considerably more enthusiastic about him than Biden's. 59% of Republicans say they're enthusiastic about Trump, compared to just 36% of Democrats who say they're enthusiastic about Biden. Many Democrats (44%) say their attitude toward Biden is "satisfied but not enthusiastic"; only 24% of Republicans say that about Trump.
Overall, more registered voters say they're enthusiastic about Trump as a candidate (28%) than say they're enthusiastic about Biden (16%).
— Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the toplines and crosstabs from the Economist/YouGov poll conducted on April 6 - 9, 2024 among 1,795 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 November 1, 2022, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (33% Democratic, 31% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty
