Eighteen percent of Americans said they would not vote in next year’s election if it’s a rematch between President Biden and former President Trump, according to a poll released this week.
According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, 67 percent of Americans said they were “tired of seeing the same candidates in presidential elections and want someone new.” In addition, 18 percent said they are not likely to vote in the November election if it is a choice between Biden or Trump.
The 2024 presidential election is headed toward a likely rematch of 2020, as Biden and Trump remain the front-runners in their respective parties’ primaries. The poll found Trump has a 6-point lead over Biden in such a rematch, with the former president garnering 40 percent of support compared to Biden’s 34 percent in a hypothetical general election contest that also included potential third-party candidates. The rest of the respondents said they would vote for someone else or for no one at all.
The poll found that 70 percent of respondents, including nearly half of Democrats, do not believe Biden should seek reelection. When asked about Trump, about 56 percent of Americans said he should not run, including about 31 percent of Republicans.
Age remains an issue among Americans when it comes to the two candidates. Biden, 81, and Trump, 77, have both faced criticism over their age and mental fitness to handle the job.
About three-fourths of respondents said Biden was too old to work in government, while about half said the same about Trump, according to the poll. More than half of Democratic respondents said Biden was too old, and one-third of Republicans said Trump was.
The poll also asked respondents about Trump’s ongoing legal battles. When asked if they agreed Trump should be prosecuted if he broke the law and sentenced to prison if convicted, 71 percent said they agreed. This included 93 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of Republicans polled.
The poll also found that 29 percent of respondents agreed with the unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, including 54 percent of Republicans.
The poll was conducted among 1,250 adults from Jan. 22-24 and has a margin of error of 2.86 percentage points.