Voters in key states likely to decide the election outcome say they trust former President Trump more than President Biden to address threats to democracy. New Research.
The Washington Post/Schar School poll surveyed voters in six battleground states and broke down subgroups of respondents into: “Decision maker.” The results showed that 38% of “decision makers” said Trump is better at dealing with threats to democracy in the United States, compared with 29% who said Biden and 23% who were undecided.
About 60% of respondents said they were completely dissatisfied with the current state of democracy in the United States.
Those classified as “deciders” include people who voted in the 2016 or 2020 elections, people under the age of 25, people registered to vote in 2022 or later, people who are undecided and may not vote, and people who changed their party support between 2016 and 2020.
Among battleground state voters, 44% say they trust the presumptive Republican nominee to protect our democracy, while 33% say they trust the incumbent. About 16% say they don’t trust either candidate, and 7% say they trust both equally, according to the poll.
Nearly three-quarters of “deciders” said they thought Trump would not accept the election results if he lost in November, and 33 percent said the same about Biden. Nearly half of this subgroup said Trump would try to become a dictator if he won, while only 15 percent said Biden would do so.
The poll comes ahead of the first 2024 presidential debate, in which Trump and Biden will face off for the first time since 2020 as they prepare for re-election in November. The debate, hosted by CNN and moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will take place at 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
The Hill/Decision Desk average of national polls shows Trump leading with 45 percent approval, while Biden has 43.8 percent support.
The poll was conducted among 3,513 voters in key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, between April 15 and May 30. Pollsters identified 2,255 “deciders” among the respondents.
The “decider” had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
