(The Hill) — Results from a new survey indicate American voters are more set on who they don’t support in the 2024 presidential race than who they do support.
Monmouth University polling, released Thursday, tested Democratic President Biden against Republican former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in hypothetical head-to-head match-ups. DeSantis officially joined Trump and Biden in the race this week, but Pence has not yet declared his candidacy.
The poll found in each hypothetical that between 44 and 46% of voters said they “definitely” won’t back Biden, and between 7 and 8% say they “probably” won’t vote for him.
Roughly a third of likely voters said they’ll definitely vote for Biden against both Trump and DeSantis — or 32 and 31%, respectively. Twenty-seven percent say they’ll definitely back him against Pence.
Against Biden, 46% of voters say they definitely will not cast their ballots for Trump, and 29% say they definitely will.
Forty-one percent of voters say they’ll definitely not back DeSantis against Biden, and 26% say they definitely will. And, 36% say they definitely won’t vote for Pence against Biden, while 18% say they definitely will.
“Negative opinion can be difficult to shift, and when it does it tends to be in the wrong direction for the candidate,” Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray said in the latest release. “That’s not to say these views won’t change in the next year and a half, but these results are a sign of how few voters are truly up for grabs in our hyper-partisan political environment.”
The GOP presidential primary field has gotten more crowded in recent weeks with the entries of DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) into the race, joining Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump has continued to poll at the front of a hypothetical GOP primary. But, now that Biden has launched his much-anticipated reelection bid, the race could be readying for a rematch of the pair’s 2020 contest — though some polling has indicated low enthusiasm for either to get another White House term.
Conducted May 18-23, the recent poll surveyed 907 registered voters and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points.
