Roughly half of Democrats in new poll say Biden should not seek reelection

About half of Democrats say President Biden should not seek reelection as he mounts a bid for a second term, according to a new poll. 

The Reuters-Ipsos poll released Tuesday showed that more than 60 percent of all respondents said Biden, who is the first octogenarian president at 80 years old, is too old to work in government. Pollsters also found 44 percent of registered Democrats said Biden should not run again. About two-thirds of all respondents said they do not want Biden or former President Trump to run again. 

Additionally, the poll found that Biden leads Trump in a hypothetical matchup by 5 points, 43 to 38 percent. 

Despite polls consistently showing many Americans do not want Biden or Trump to run again in 2024, both of them appear to have significant advantages to win their respective parties’ nominations. 

Trump has consistently led in hypothetical GOP polls by large margins in recent months, leading his next closest potential challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), by double digits in many cases. 

Biden currently only has opposition from two candidates who are likely long shots to win the Democratic nomination: self-help author and progressive Marianne Williamson and environmental and anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr. 

Early hypothetical polling has shown Biden with large leads over the two challengers. Biden had support from 67 percent in a USA Today-Suffolk University poll from earlier this month, compared to Kennedy’s 14 percent and Williamson’s 5 percent. 

Biden led Williamson by more than 70 points in a poll taken last month, just after Williamson announced her run. 

The Reuters-Ipsos poll also found Biden leading DeSantis by a comfortable margin of 9 points, 43 to 34 percent. 

The poll was conducted across three days among 1,005 adults, including 445 self-described Democrats and 361 self-described Republicans. The credibility interval, a measure of confidence in the poll’s result, was 4 points.