Trump Is the Only GOP Candidate Who Beats Biden in 2024 Election Poll
Former President Donald Trump never conceded to now-President Joe Biden following the contentious 2020 election, and while he’s been considerably quieter since he left office than he was when he served as our 45th president, he has been consistently hinting at a possible 2024 run.
This has given Trump supporters — some of whom are still hanging on to the very slim hope that the 2020 election might be more closely scrutinized and Trump reinstalled in the White House before Biden’s term is up — much to look forward to.
Other big names have been floated to be Biden’s Republican rival in 2024, however: former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and rockstar Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, among others.
Yet according to recent polling conducted as Biden grappled with the fallout of his disastrous Afghan withdrawal, the biggest crisis of his presidency, no Republican other than Trump has what it takes to beat him.
Respondents to a national Emerson College Poll favored Trump slightly over Biden in a hypothetical 2024 head-to-head matchup, while the rest of the prospective GOP challengers to the incumbent president did not fare so well.
In the Trump-Biden face-off, Trump enjoyed a 1 percent edge over his successor, 47 percent to 46 percent.
The Emerson poll found that Biden’s current favorability is split in identical figures: 47 percent of voters disapprove of his job performance while 46 percent approve. The remaining 7 percent are unsure.
The poll of 1,200 registered voters was conducted via phone and online Aug. 30-Sept. 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Of Democrats polled, 60 percent said they’d like to see Biden as their nominee in 2024, while 39 percent would prefer another candidate.
Among Republican voters, 67 percent said they’d vote for Trump in the GOP primaries out of eight candidates listed. The others were DeSantis (10 percent), Haley (7), Pence (6), Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (3), Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (2), Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (1) and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton (0). Five percent said they would support “someone else.”
That’s right: Of those hypothetical primary opponents, DeSantis was the only candidate to achieve double-digit support in a primary that included Trump, whom many have speculated might pick DeSantis as a running mate if he were to throw his hat in the ring again in 2024.
But DeSantis, along with all the other prospective Republican challengers, didn’t fare well when matched up against Biden in a hypothetical general election. Voters favored the incumbent in every one of those prospective matchups.
Other than Trump, that is.
The Trump camp has seemed to enjoy keeping the rumors swirling that the former president will indeed run again in 2024.
Late last month, even vehement Trump critic and cousin Mary Trump, who penned a scathing book about the then-president last year, said she believed he’ll run again and he would be the only prospective candidate who had what it took to sway voters.
“I don’t see anybody else at the top of the Republican Party who has the same kind of sway with other, with their voters,” she said last month, according to The Hill.
For Trump’s part, although he’s already revived his famous political rallies to stump for GOP candidates he’s endorsed and has even cut a political ad appearing to promote a 2024 run, the former president prefers to keep the public guessing for now — and has rather prudent plans to wait and see how popular a prospective run might be.
“Well based on every poll, they want me to run again, but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” he confidently told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in March.
In April, Trump told the network’s Sean Hannity that he was “seriously considering” another run, pointing to his “tremendous numbers,” in true Trumpian form.
Over the last few weeks, as the situation in Afghanistan crumbled and Biden was slammed from all sides for the way his administration handled the withdrawal, Trump certainly took the opportunity to highlight what he would have done differently as his successor’s approval ratings plummeted.
In a statement directed at an outraged Gold Star mother who blamed Biden after her son was slain in a Kabul terror blast on Aug. 26, Trump wrote, “If I were President, your wonderful and beautiful son Kareem would be with you now, and so would the sons and daughters of others, including all of those who died in the vicious Kabul airport attack.”
NEW!
“Thank you Shana—our Country loves you and especially loves your beautiful boy, Kareem.” – President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/RLkRIGeOE8
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) September 6, 2021
It is certainly true that to supporters of President Trump’s hardline policies and America First agenda, every single day of the Biden administration is like a walking political advertisement for Trump 2024.
Regardless of whether or not Trump runs in 2024, there’s no doubt that trend will continue as the Biden presidency drags on.
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