Amid growing Democratic concerns about President Joe Biden, a new poll finds that nearly two-thirds of voters of his party say they want someone else to be their nominee in 2024.
A New York Times/Siena poll, the first of the 2022 election cycle, released this week has some truly awful numbers that should be genuinely horrifying for an incumbent president in a time when the country is not at war, the unemployment rate is near a 50-year low, and the country just saw it another strong month of job growth.
Despite those economic measures that one might expect would help soothe concerns and provide some kind of approval rating boost, polls show that Biden is deeply unpopular.
According to the Times’ poll, slightly more than a quarter — 26% — of Democrats said they want Biden to be their presidential nominee in 2024.
By contrast, 64% of Democrats said they want a different candidate.
Overall, voters gave Biden a measly 33% approval rating in the survey.
As the Times’ Shane Godmacher pointed out, 94% of voters under 30 said they want a different nominee.
And one of the main reasons Democrats told the pollster they want a new candidate in 2024 is something that Biden cannot really address: his age.
According to the poll, 33% of Democrats cited his age as the reason why they want a new candidate for the next election cycle.
Perhaps, with some new message discipline and a nice clean stretch of time without awkward incoherent gaffes, tripping up steps, falling off of a bike, flashing a cue card with very explicit directions for him, or apparently reciting directions from a teleprompter, Biden could soothe concerns about his age.
However, given that he’s been in office for over a year and a half and nothing seems to have changed, such a change is unlikely.
Thirty-two percent of Democrats said they want a new candidate because of his job performance. Meanwhile, 10% said they want a new candidate because Biden is ”not progressive enough.” And 3% cited mental acuity.
The poll also found that 75% of respondents said the economy was ”extremely important” to them.
But in more bad news for Biden, just 1% said the economy was in excellent shape.
And among respondents who are of working age, just 6% said the economy was in good or excellent condition, while a whopping 93% said it was poor or only fair.
While Biden has urged voters to make abortion and gun control voting issues, Americans appear to be more concerned about their pocketbooks — at least that’s what they’re telling pollsters.
The Times’ chief political analyst Nate Cohn succinctly points out, “The left has a set of priorities that is just different from the rest of the country’s.”
“Liberals care more about abortion and guns than about the economy. Conservative concerns are much more in line with the rest of the country,” he added.
In a different environment, guns and abortion might be winning arguments for Democrats and Biden. But with Americans feeling the pinch because of inflation and high gas prices, it seems likely that social issues will take a backseat.
And if Democrats get beaten badly in November, the cries for new leadership and a new nominee will likely only grow louder.