A new poll shows a growing number of Americans expect former President Donald Trump to beat President Biden in Thursday’s first presidential debate.
Leisure SurveyIn a poll obtained exclusively by The Washington Post on Wednesday, 42% of respondents said they thought the 45th president would win, while just 29% thought the incumbent would win. The remaining 29% said they didn’t know.
Self-identified Republicans had more confidence in the candidates, with 83% of Republicans betting on Trump to win, while only 60% of self-identified Democrats were betting on Biden.
The major party candidates will face off for the first time at 9 p.m. at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters.
The poll found that just 50% of Americans plan to watch the debate, but only 10% said the Nov. 5 debate might change their choice.
A whopping 75% of respondents said the debates would not affect who they voted for, and an additional 15% said they weren’t sure.
When voters were asked who they would support if the election were held today, Biden narrowly beat Trump, 45% to 43%, with the remaining 12% saying they would vote for “someone else.”
Biden, 81, is polling ahead of Trump despite his approval rating of just 34%, while nearly one in five (19%) of those who voted for Biden four years ago say they are dissatisfied with his performance as president.
Slightly more Americans believe Trump will win the election (39%), while 32% think Biden will win.
In the five-way race that also includes third-party candidates, the poll showed Biden and Trump in a close race among likely voters, with 38% support each.
Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received 7% support, independent Cornel West and Green Party candidate Jill Stein each received 2% support, and 13% said they didn’t know who to support.
Trump’s July 11 ruling in the Manhattan “hush payment” case could affect the election outcome, widening Biden’s popular vote lead to 5 percentage points if the former president is sent to prison.
Trump, 78, was convicted on May 30 of 34 counts of concealing evidence of payments to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election and falsifying business records to cover up an alleged affair a decade ago.
The Ledger poll was conducted online June 22-24 among 1,003 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.01 percentage points.
