New polls spell more concerning news for President Joe Biden’s campaign in the wake of his politically disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
A national poll from the firm Bendixen & Amandi, shared with Politico on Tuesday, show a close race between Biden and Trump, with Biden trailing the former president by 42% to 43%. It also found other prominent Democrats have a better chance at beating Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Vice President Kamala Harris, whom party insiders are increasingly floating as a Biden replacement, polls at 42% to 41% against Trump in this new survey. And even though she’s not being discussed as a serious contender, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton polled even better than Harris and Biden, with 43% support compared with 41% for Trump, whom she lost to in 2016 in the Electoral College count.
Clinton’s chances are even better with Harris staying on as vice president. The poll found that the duo beats out by Trump by 43% to 40%. Clinton, however, has publicly vowed not to seek the White House again.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, two other Democrats being discussed as Biden replacements, didn’t fare as well in the poll, which found Newsom trailing Trump, 37% to 40%, and Whitmer lagging at 36% to 40%.
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Biden’s cognitive fitness for the presidency has become a major concern, the poll found. Among the 86% of likely voters who watched the debate, 61% said he does not have the mental capacity and physical stamina to serve a second term.
An AARP poll conducted by Fabrizio Ward and Impact Research, released Tuesday, showed that Biden is trailing Trump in a key demographic in Wisconsin, one of the presidential contest’s big battleground states. Of the state’s voters who are 50 or older, 52% say they would support Trump over Biden, who has 43% of their support.
Among all Wisconsin voters, the poll found Biden trails Trump 38% to 44%.
The president’s poor polling there is stark in comparison with Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, whom the poll found was outpacing her Republican challenger, Eric Hovde, 50% to 45% among all likely voters.
Polls are expected to get worse for Biden. Nate Silver, founder of the polling news outlet FiveThirtyEight, posted on social media that new state polls show even wider margins between Biden and Trump.
Tuesday’s polls are only the latest to show Biden trailing Trump in the wake of the June 27 debate. One from The New York Times/Siena last week had Trump beating Biden by 49% to 43%. Another from The Wall Street Journal showed Trump leading Biden, 48% to 42%, in a two-person matchup.