New Poll Shows Trump-Biden Neck-and-Neck, Kennedy Enters the Fray

Trump 51% – Biden 49%… within the margin of error
50% of Biden supporters are “anti-Trump.”
Disappointed voters look to Kennedy and others for a rematch

A recent poll reveals a razor-thin difference of about 2% in the popularity ratings between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Notably, one in two Biden supporters indicated that their vote is more of a stance against Trump than a show of support for Biden, making it difficult to predict the actual voting intentions.

Some observers anticipate an unpredictable scenario in the upcoming U.S. election, which is less than a year away, as some consider the potential rematch between the two candidates stale, leading to an increase in voters supporting third-party candidates.

In collaboration with major foreign media, a recent poll Ipsos conducted on the 13th and 14th asked 1,006 adults nationwide who they would vote for in a two-way race. The results showed that 49% of respondents chose President Biden, while 51% chose former President Trump, with a gap of 2 percentage points.

This is a decrease from a poll conducted by CNN and polling agency SSRS from the 27th of last month to the 2nd of this month, which showed a gap of 4 percentage points (Biden 45%, Trump 49%). Despite the decrease in the gap, the fact that Trump is still ahead of Biden within the margin of error of 3.8 percentage points means that Biden cannot rest easy.

Interestingly, of the respondents who said they would vote for President Biden, 50% said they made this decision in opposition to former President Trump and his policies. Only 38% of respondents said they would vote for Biden because they support him and his policies, suggesting their vote is more about preventing Trump’s re-election than supporting Biden.

President Biden’s approval rating has remained around 40% for over a year. This is partly due to the economic impact of high inflation and concerns among voters about his status as the oldest president in U.S. history, which raises worries about his re-election.

Support for former President Trump, on the other hand, is relatively solid. Of the respondents who said they would vote for Trump, 42% said they support him, his policies, and the Republican party, surpassing the opposition rate to Biden (40%). Among potential Republican candidates, Trump still leads in popularity.

However, recently, there has been a significant increase in voters expressing fatigue over the possibility of a rematch between Biden and Trump. This has drawn attention to candidates who intend to run as independents or third-party candidates. A notable figure is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who left the Democratic Party a month ago to run independently. He is an attorney and environmental activist, the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

In the same poll, when asked who they would vote for in a hypothetical three-way race, 32% of respondents chose former President Trump, 30% chose President Biden, and 20% chose Attorney Kennedy Jr., indicating a relatively even distribution of support among the current and former presidents.

By. Jeong Hyun Jin