About a third of Democrats in a recent poll said they are satisfied with President Biden as their party’s nominee, compared to the more than 70 percent of Republicans who said the same about former President Trump.
The NBC News poll, which was conducted before the attempted assassination against Trump on Saturday, found 33 percent of Democrats said they are satisfied with Biden as the nominee, while 62 percent of party voters would have preferred someone else. Five percent said they were not sure.
Trump fared far better among the GOP participants, with 71 percent of Republicans stating they are satisfied with Trump as the nominee, while 27 percent would have preferred someone else. Two percent said they were not sure.
The findings follow a tumultuous few weeks for Biden, who is facing increased pressure from some in his own party to step aside from the 2024 race following a lackluster performance in the debate late last month.
Biden, who has acknowledged his poor debate performance, maintains he intends on staying in the race and can defeat Trump at the ballot box in November.
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The majority of voters in the NBC News poll suggested the debate did not have a significant impact on their voting plans, with 71 percent saying it made no difference. Twenty-two percent said they were more likely to support Trump and 5 percent said they were more likely to support Biden.
The poll, which was conducted July 7 to 9, found Trump leading Biden by 2 points, 43 percent support to 45 percent. This was within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points and had the same margin as April’s survey, when Trump led 46 percent support to 44 percent, NBC News noted.
This margin does not change greatly in a six-way contest, with Trump leading Biden by 3 points, 40 percent support to 37 percent. Others in the six-way contest included independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver.
When reached for comment, the Biden campaign pointed to a memo released last Saturday in which a campaign official argued postdebate polling, both internal and public, “did not change” the race.
“Both our internal polls as well as public surveys show a neck-and-neck contest. We’ve said since the beginning that this will be a close race, which is why we have a campaign that is designed to win a close race,” Biden deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks wrote in the memo, shared with The Hill.
The Republican National Convention, during which delegates are expected to vote for Trump as their party’s official nominee, kicked off Monday. Trump is poised to name his vice-presidential pick on the convention’s opening day before delivering remarks Thursday night.
The convention comes just two days after Trump was wounded in an attempted assassination against him at a rally in Butler, Pa., last Saturday. One spectator was killed, while two others were injured. Trump, who said a bullet pierced his ear, and his team said he was doing fine and arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday night.
The NBC News poll was conducted among 800 registered voters July 7-9, with an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.