A majority of voters believe President Joe Biden’s poor performance in the debates should lead Democrats to drop out of the presidential race, according to a new poll.
The Rasmussen Reports study was released Friday. found 55% of voters agree that Biden should step down, including 38% who “strongly agree.” 36% of respondents disagree with the suggestion that Biden should step down, including 21% who “strongly disagree.”
Interestingly, the report found that nearly half of Democrats (48%) “at least somewhat agree” that Biden should step aside and the party should choose another candidate, an opinion shared by 62% of Republicans and 56% of voters unaffiliated with either major party. Conversely, 45% of Democrats, 31% of Republicans and 30% of independents oppose Biden stepping down.
The poll found that a third of voters (33%) said Democrats should choose Vice President Kamala Harris as their presidential nominee if Biden leaves office, while half (50%) said Democrats should choose someone else. 17% of respondents were unsure.
Broken down by party, 45% of Democrats said the party would be better placed if Harris were its presidential candidate, while 39% said the party would be better placed if it fielded another candidate to replace the 81-year-old Biden.
The survey found that 28% of Republicans and 25% of independents said Kamala would be a suitable replacement for Biden, while 57% of Republicans and 55% of independents said Democrats should choose someone else.
Younger voters are far more likely to say Democrats should drop Biden and put forward another candidate: The poll reported that 75% of voters under 40 agree that Biden should step aside and the party should choose a different candidate, compared with 48% of voters aged 40-64 and 46% of those 65 and older.
Overall, 57% of respondents said Trump won the June 27 debate. Just 22% said Biden won, and 21% said they didn’t know who won.
“While 45% of Democrats believe Biden won the debate, only 9% of Republicans and 10% of independents share that view,” the survey said. “84% of Republicans, 25% of Democrats and 63% of independents believe Trump won last week’s debate.”
The survey was conducted among 1,117 U.S. voters between June 30 and July 2. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X. Follow.
