Enthusiasm for Biden-Trump rematch ticks up: Survey

Excitement over a 2024 rematch between President Biden and former President Trump is slowly increasing as the general election approaches, according to a new poll.

In Monday’s poll by Monmouth University, 39 percent of voters expressed at least some enthusiasm about a Biden-Trump rematch, up 12 percentage points from December.

Although enthusiasm might be ticking up, however, the majority of voters are still not looking forward to November. About 60 percent expressed little or no enthusiasm about seeing Trump or Biden on the November ballot, pollsters noted.

Excitement has increased across party lines, though the uptick is higher among Republicans. About 63 percent of Republicans are eager about the rematch, compared to about 36 percent of Democrats and only 27 percent of independents, Monmouth said.

Biden and Trump have each scored enough delegates to win their respective parties’ nominations, teeing them up for a repeat of the 2020 rematch. Polling averages from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ show Trump up by less than a half a point over Biden in a head-to-head contest.

The two candidates each received low favorability markings in Monday’s poll.

About 58 percent — of voters said they have an unfavorable opinion of Biden, while 57 percent said the same for Trump. Combined, only 2 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of both candidates, while 41 percent have a favorable opinion of Trump only and 39 percent have a favorable opinion of Biden only.

Seventeen percent have an unfavorable opinion of both candidates, pollsters noted. Among this group, 78 percent said they are not at all excited about a Trump-Biden rematch.

Monday’s report follows a series of recent polls that have shown few Americans are excited about the rematch.

In one poll released in January by Decision Desk HQ/NewsNation, about 59 percent of registered voters were “not too enthusiastic” or “not at all enthusiastic” about a rematch between the two.

The Monmouth University Poll was conducted by telephone from April 18-22 with 808 adults in the U.S. It has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.