Half of Biden supporters open to another candidate: poll

Half of voters who said they support President Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary also said they were open to voting for another candidate, according to new poll released Wednesday.

In the new Quinnipiac University national poll, 51 percent of respondents planning to vote for Biden in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary said they might change their candidate choice, depending on what happens before the Democratic primary.

Another 46 percent of those voters said they will not change their mind, no matter what happens ahead of the primary.

Former President Trump’s supporters proved more loyal to their preferred candidate than did Biden’s.

Among voters who said they plan on supporting Trump in the Republican primary, 68 percent said they are firmly set on the former president, regardless of what happens before the GOP primary. Twenty-nine percent said they might change their candidate choice depending on what happens. 

But while Biden’s support appears less set than Trump’s, the president remains the far-and-away frontrunner to secure the Democratic nomination.

In the latest poll, Biden received 73 percent of support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. received 11 percent support, and Marianne Williamson received 8 percent. 

Trump maintained a commanding lead among GOP primary voters, with 62 percent support. Yet the former president faces a more crowded primary field than Biden, and he must also stand trial on a number of charges in the year leading up to the election, which could pose unique obstacles to his campaign.

The poll was conducted on Sept. 7-11 with a margin of error of +/- 2.2 percentage points overall. The margin of error for Republican and Republican-leaning voters was +/- 3.6 percentage points, and the margin of error for Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters was +/- 3.6 percentage points.