(The Center Square) – A new poll finds that 30% of Democrats would choose someone other than President Joe Biden as their nominee if given other popular choices.
When voters are given specific choices, that percentage rises to 66%.
The poll highlights recent concerns about Biden’s leadership and ability to govern.
The poll, conducted in partnership with Noble Predictive Insights from July 8-11, surveyed approximately 2,300 voters, including 1,006 Republicans, 1,117 Democrats and 172 true independents.
The error is 2.1%.
The Center Square Voter Voice Poll is one of only six national tracking surveys in the United States.
The poll showed 30% of Democrats would choose another unnamed candidate, but 58% said they still supported Biden after his disastrous first debate defeat against former President Donald Trump.
Twelve percent of likely Democratic voters were unsure.
Given concrete alternative options, likely Democratic voters will be split among several prominent Democrats.
If they could wave a magic wand to choose the Democratic presidential nominee for November’s election, Democratic voters are likely to choose Biden (34%), Vice President Kamala Harris (15%), former First Lady Michelle Obama (15%), California Governor Gavin Newsom (7%), Senator Bernie Sanders (7%), former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (5%), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (5%), Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (3%), Senator Elizabeth Warren (2%) or Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (1%).
The remaining 6% will choose someone else.
This means that two-thirds of Democratic voters would choose someone other than Biden.
“Those are pretty bad numbers for someone who’s already won the primary,” David Byler of Noble Predictive Insights told The Center Square.
“When people are given other named options, two-thirds of Democrats choose someone else.”
Biden’s poor performance in the debate against former President Donald Trump has rekindled concerns about his cognitive ability and whether he can stay in office for another four years.
Biden, 81, has shown visible signs of aging during his presidency, highlighted by special counsel Robert Hur’s final report on the investigation into Biden’s mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House after serving as vice president under Barack Obama.
Hoare declined to indict Biden, but the report highlighted Biden’s difficulty remembering things, such as the year his son died.
As The Center Square previously reported, the report said, “Biden’s memory deteriorated during interviews with authorities.”
“He didn’t remember being vice president, he forgot that his term ended on the first day of the interview (‘If it was 2013, when did I stop being vice president?’) and he forgot that his term began on the second day of the interview (‘Was I still vice president in 2009?’).”
The report continues:
“He couldn’t remember, even after several years, when his son Beau died, and his memory seemed hazy when he spoke about the Afghanistan debate, which was once very important to him.”
Since the debate, Biden has repeatedly stuttered, stuttered and at times sounded incoherent and disconnected, leading some Democrats to call for him to end his reelection bid.
Biden has said he intends to continue running as his party’s nominee despite the concerns.
