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New poll has Trump ahead in 6 crucial swing states – Biden’s mental fitness a top concern for voters

April 3, 2024 | | Print Article

Former President Trump is stomping President Biden in six of seven key swing states due to the president’s perceived lack of mental fitness and his abysmal handling of the economy and the border.

A new Wall Street Journal poll that came out on Wednesday appears to be further bad news for Biden’s 2024 reelection campaign. His age, gaffes, memory loss, and general ineptitude have voters very, very concerned. Trump, at 77, by comparison, exudes confidence, energy, and competence.

The former president “is leading in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia by between one and three percentage points and in North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada by at or more than the poll’s four-point margin of error,” according to the New York Post.

“Biden, 81, and the former president are also tied in a head-to-head matchup in the blue wall state of Wisconsin, but the Democrat holds a three-point lead when adding in candidates from outside both of the major parties,” the media outlet noted.

(Video Credit: The Hill)

Excluding North Carolina, the other five states in the poll went for Biden four years ago. That was primarily due to a base of black, Hispanic, and young voters supporting Biden. This time around Biden won’t be able to count on that coalition of voters.

“That coalition is now flagging, with just 68% of black voters, 50% of voters under the age of 30, and 48% of Hispanic voters supporting the president for another term,” the New York Post wrote.

Biden reportedly won the black vote in 2020 by 91 points, according to AP VoteCast. The president also swayed Hispanic voters by 63 points and young voters under 30 by 61 points. That was then – today is an entirely different political landscape and it’s not favorable to Biden.

“The seven battleground states comprise 93 of the 270 Electoral College votes needed for either candidate to win in November — and Trump’s lead in the six competitive contests holds even when factoring in third-party and Independent candidates,” the New York Post continued.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has qualified for the ballot in North Carolina and the Green Party has made the 2024 ballots in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Arizona. There are differing opinions on whether the other parties help or hurt Trump, but the majority seem to believe they help the former president.

The WSJ poll also found that one-quarter of voters in the swing states are backing Independent or third-party candidates or are undecided.

“Don’t look at these people as excited by third-party candidates,” Democratic pollster Michael Bocian warned. He conducted the survey with veteran GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio.

“They are saying, ‘I’m toying with some other options because I don’t like the options I’ve been given,’” he told the WSJ in an interview.

All seven swing states found voters rating Biden’s job performance negatively by whopping margins of 16% or more.

Only one of the seven states, Arizona, gave Trump a negative job performance.

In Nevada, which went for Biden in 2020, Trump’s lead is expanding among working Hispanics and union members. That’s a very, very bad sign for Biden.

“By the issues, a majority of the voters said Trump was the better candidate to handle the economy and border security, with 54% and 52% backing the former president, respectively,” the New York Post reported. “Just 34% said Biden was the better pick for dealing with the economy, and 32% favored the president on immigration issues.”

In the poll, only 28% of voters contended that Biden had the “mental and physical fitness needed to be president.” Compare that to the 48% who feel Trump is fit both mentally and physically for the job as president and Biden’s dilemma becomes clear.

“However, Biden is beating Trump on the issue of abortion, with 45% of the swing-state voters preferring the president to the 33% who favor the former president on the issue that was relegated to the states after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022,” the New York Post pointed out.

“More than six in 10 voters in the six swing states, four of which have Democratic governors, said that the economy is “not so good” or “poor,” while 57% gave the same rating in Wisconsin,” the media outlet stated. “Similarly, 68% of voters said it was increasingly difficult for the average American to get a leg up in the current economy, whereas 26% described that mobility as ‘getting easier.'”

Forty-nine percent claim that their personal finances “were going in the wrong direction.”

“Overall, 35% of voters said the economy and inflation were the most critical issues determining their 2024 vote — an increase of 16 percentage points since the last Journal survey in February,” the New York Post said. “Just 25% said the economy has improved in the two years since inflation reached a 40-year high, which is a six-point lower rating than the Journal’s nationwide poll found among voters.”

The Wall Street Journal poll surveyed 4,200 registered voters. Six hundred of those surveyed were in each battleground state and the poll took place from March 17 to 24. The margin of error was plus or minus four percentage points in each state and 1.5 percentage points for the entire poll.

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