A new poll on Tuesday showed US President Joe Biden’s modest lead over his predecessor Donald Trump had evaporated in the 2024 race for the White House.
The poll, released by YouGov and Yahoo News, showed the candidates tied with each of them winning the support of 44% of registered voters. The results mark a shift from a poll by the same firm the previous month that showed Biden with 47% support and Donald Trump with 41%.
A full 7% of registered voters said they were undecided while 4% said they would refuse to vote in a rerun of the 2020 election.
In addition to the horse race numbers, a series of other findings showed ominous signs for Biden amidst a tightening race. The president’s job approval sunk to 38%, just above his record low of 35% in August 2022.
Meanwhile, only 27% of voters rated Biden as “fit to serve another term as president” while 77% said the octogenarian politician’s age is a problem. Some 47% of Americans believe Biden and his family are corrupt, and only 34% approve of his handling of the country’s economy.
Trump seems to acknowledge his party’s anti-abortion position may prove fatal for him next year. He recently appeared to strike a more moderate tone on the issue, calling Florida’s recently-enacted six-week abortion ban “a terrible thing” in a weekend interview with US media. The remark was met with criticism from various conservative figures.
"We don't take the ups and downs of individual polls to heart," a senior Biden adviser told media on Wednesday, insisting the president’s political acumen is consistently underrated. "What will matter next year is when our voters are fully engaged."
The YouGov/Yahoo News poll comes amidst two other polls this week from Emerson and Morning Consult which also show a tied presidential contest. One average of polls from various firms showed Trump with a scant .5-percent lead over Biden in voter preference, confirming Americans are currently sharply divided between the two candidates.
But surveys consistently show both major-party contenders are regarded unfavorably by over half of the voting public. Unpopular candidates have been a persistent feature of US politics since the 2016 election, when polls showed both Trump and then-contender Hillary Clinton were viewed unfavorably by more than 50% of Americans.
Polling earlier this year showed about half of voters consider themselves to be political independents, dwarfing support for either of the two major parties. Polling over the last two decades shows 55% of Americans believe a third major party is needed, though the country’s rigid two-party system continues to stymie the emergence of one.