On Tuesday, President Joe Biden responded angrily when a reporter asked him a question about a New York Times poll which showed that 64 percent of Democratic voters don’t want Biden to run in 2024. Biden said the reporter was wrong, and that the reporter needed to check the polls, “Jack.” The president also retorted that 92 percent of Democrats said they would vote for him if he ran again.
The president’s remarks have gone viral Wednesday as most news outlets have pointed out that Biden’s remarks were only partially true. The Times report that 64 percent of voters wish for a new candidate to run in 2024 is accurate. Early this week, the news outlet published polling results that showed President Biden has only a 33 percent approval rating. At least three-quarters of the country’s citizens believe that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The New York Times poll the president referenced asked the question of possible votes in a Biden v. Trump 2024 presidential election. In this case, 92 percent of Democrats said they would vote for Biden rather than President Trump.
Only 26 percent of Democratic voters said that Biden should be re-nominated by the party to run in 2024.
For months, political pundits have been predicting a red wave in the upcoming November midterm elections. This season’s primaries have seen wins by very conservative Republicans as well as the flipping of some normally blue Congressional seats to red ones.
In Texas, Rep. Mayra Flores (R) was elected in a special election to fill a seat vacated by Filemon Vela. Her election was special because the district in South Texas has been blue for many years. Moderate Democrat Henry Cuellar won a tight race with a more progressive primary contender in his South Texas district. In Ohio, MAGA Republican JD Vance won his primary and faces a Democratic opponent in November. Trump-backed Dr. Oz was declared the winner in a Pennsylvania Senate race after a month-long standoff.
Fox News is reporting, however, that Democrats appear to be closing a gap on Republicans relating to the upcoming midterms.
The same poll carried out regarding President Biden’s approval rating and possible 2024 run also measured whether 849 registered voters would vote Democrat or Republican in the upcoming midterms. In the Siena College poll, the 849 people surveyed said they preferred a Democratic candidate by a margin of one percentage point.
At the same time, in a group of likely voters, 44 percent favored Republican candidates for Congress whereas 43 percent favored a Democratic candidate.
Republican voters tend to believe that the economy is the most important priority of the 2024 midterms, while Democratic voters say gun policies and gun control is their most important reason to get to the polls in November.
Only ten percent of Democrats listed the economy as the number one issue for this season’s mid-terms. This poll was conducted prior to the release of Wednesday’s Labor Department report that showed inflation at 9.1 percent, up nearly one-half a point since the end of May. Economists are referring to the cost of goods as “painfully high,” and voters under financial strain could make a difference in the November mid-term elections.
Refinitiv economists had predicted that the inflation rate for June would be 8.8 percent.
Some Republican lawmakers are concerned that the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade could mobilize some Democratic voters. Gun policies are another hot topic for voters. Both abortion and gun control are platform issues for each political party, and they could serve to shore up votes on both sides of the political aisle.
The Siena College poll was conducted between July 5 – 7, and the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.
With four months left before the November 8 elections, much could happen that may change the outcomes of the election.
