President Joe Biden trails former President Donald Trump in multiple key swing states for a hypothetical 2024 matchup, according to a Thursday poll.
Across the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Trump is leading Biden 47% to 43%, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey. A majority of the battleground state voters also said the economy was better off under the Trump administration than it is under Biden, with 49% trusting the former on the issue rather than the latter at 35%.
In five of the seven individual swing states polled, Trump led Biden by anywhere from 1 point to 5 points, according to the survey. The two were tied in Michigan at 44%, and Biden beat Trump in Nevada 46% to 43%.
Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, but lost them all to Biden in 2020. In both elections, Trump secured North Carolina, while the Democratic nominee won Nevada.
Swing-state voters also trusted Trump more than Biden with handling key issues like immigration, crime, U.S.-China relations, guns, the Russia-Ukraine war, regulation of tech companies, housing, infrastructure and labor and unions, according to the survey. Biden led Trump on education and schools, Social Security and Medicare, democracy, health care, abortion and climate change.
The voters were also pessimistic about “Bidenomics,” the economic agenda for the president’s reelection campaign, with only 29% saying it has been good for the economy and 49% saying it has been bad, according to the poll. Among those who said the economy was the most important issue, they disapproved of Biden’s handling 65% to 14%.
A series of recent polls have suggested Trump is favored in multiple battleground states for 2024. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released in mid-September found that Trump was leading Biden across the same seven swing states as surveyed by Bloomberg News/Morning Consult at 41% to 35%; other surveys released in early October show Trump beating Biden in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan anywhere from 2 points to 9 points.
The RealClearPolitics average for a 2024 national Republican and Democratic primary, based on the most recent polling, indicates Trump and Biden are leading their respective fields with 57.9% and 61.4% support, respectively.
The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll surveyed a total of 5,023 registered voters across the seven swing states between Oct. 5 and Oct. 10 with a margin of error of plus or minus 1%.
Individually, the survey polled 804 voters in Arizona, 801 in Georgia and 807 in Pennsylvania, all with a margin of error of plus or minus 3%; 706 were surveyed in Michigan, 503 in Nevada, 702 in North Carolina and 700 in Wisconsin, all with a margin of error of 4%.
Neither Trump nor Biden immediately responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Mary Lou Masters on October 19, 2023
