Inflation has replaced the coronavirus pandemic as the most pressing issue concerning voters.
If Donald Trump ran against current President Joe Biden in November 2024, the former president would likely defeat the incumbent by some four percentage points, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.
Forty-eight percent of voters responding to an Emerson College poll said their pick for president would be Trump, while 44 percent said they would vote for Biden.
In a previous November 2021 poll by Emerson, Trump led Biden 45 percent to 43.
Tuesday’s poll results indicate that Trump is widening his potential lead over the Democrat, as public approval ratings for Biden plunge.
Fifty percent of registered voters disapprove of Biden’s job performance, with 42 percent saying they approve, the poll found.
“In the last year, President Biden has watched his job approval get turned upside down from +10 to -8,” said Prof. Spencer Kimball, executive director of Survey Research at Emerson.
The poll also found a significant drop in public concern around the coronavirus pandemic, along with a notable split along party lines in terms of which voters were more worried about the disease.
“Public perception of Covid-19 has shifted; voters now perceive Covid-19 as less of a major threat to public health,” said Camille Mumford, director of Communications at Emerson.
“While a significant portion of Democrats find Covid-19 to be a major threat and Republicans find it to be a minor threat, the plurality of Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters believe Covid-19 is a moderate threat to public health,” she said.
The leading issue proving to be a concern for voters was inflation, with some 24 percent saying it was the biggest factor in their voting decisions.
Younger voters, a majority of them usually voting Democrat, expressed less motivation to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
Some 57 percent of voters aged 29 or younger said they were “very motivated” to cast their ballots, while a staggering 84 percent of Americans older than 50 said they were “very motivated.”
(World Israel News).