Trump leads Biden, builds support among young voters: poll

Former President Trump leads President Biden by 2 points in a hypothetical 2024 general election match-up and is improving his standing among young voters, according to a poll released Friday. 

The Emerson College poll showed Trump ahead with 47 percent support to Biden’s 45 percent, with 8 percent undecided. That’s up 2 points for Trump compared to Emerson’s poll from last month, while Biden’s support remained the same. 

The results are the latest in a series of polls that have shown a close race in a hypothetical contest between Biden and Trump, each of their party’s most likely nominees, or have shown Trump ahead of Biden by some amount. 

Trump led Biden by 4 points nationwide in a CNBC All-America Economic Survey poll from Wednesday, and he led by 4 points in a Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll of seven key swing states from Thursday. 

Pollsters found Trump performing better than Biden among the youngest voters, leading the incumbent among 18-to-29-year-olds by about 2 points, 45.2 percent to 42.9 percent. The former president also leads among 30-to-39-year-olds by about 11 points, 49.6 percent to 38.5 percent. 

Emerson included a question of a hypothetical match-up between Biden and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the 2012 GOP presidential nominee who is not running for president and plans to retire from the Senate after his current term comes to an end. Biden led Romney among voters under 30 by a significant margin, 50 percent to 24 percent. 

Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball noted in a release that this lead is more reflective of Biden’s margin of victory with these voters in the 2020 election. 

The two youngest age groups were also the most likely to be undecided, with 12 percent saying they do not know who they would support between Trump and Biden. 

The poll placed Biden’s approval rating overall at 42 percent, while 50 percent disapprove of his job performance. His approval rating is 1 point higher than it was last month, while his disapproval rating rose 3 points. 

Pollsters also found a close race on the generic congressional ballot for 2024, with about 45 percent of respondents saying they would vote for the Democratic candidate and about 44 percent saying they would vote for the Republican. 

The poll was conducted Oct. 16-17 among 1,578 registered voters, including 574 Democrats, 559 Republicans and 445 independents or voters with a different party affiliation. The margin of error was 2.4 points.