An Emerson College poll released Monday shows that former President Donald Trump increased his lead to 2 percentage points over President Joe Biden in a hypothetical matchup of 2024 presidential candidates. The poll showed Trump with a lead of 46% to 44% over Biden after last week’s poll showed them tied. The poll also shows that with Green Party candidate Cornel West on the ballot, Trump’s lead is 44%-39%, with 4% supporting West and 13% undecided. The poll of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. "Despite losing ground in the Republican Primary, support for Donald Trump in a hypothetical matchup against Joe Biden increased two points since last week's poll," Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. "Cornel West continues to draw support from 7% of independents, 8% from Black voters, and 7% from Hispanics, key demographics that drove Biden's 2020 victory." West, a progressive activist and scholar, announced his third-party run for the White House in early June. Meanwhile, Democrat leaders have been trying to play down polling suggesting many within their own party are concerned about Biden's age and about his fitness to serve a second term. Also in play, House Republican efforts to unravel a potential scandal dogging the Biden administration, one centered on allegations Biden's son Hunter traded on his family name to cement business relationships and lucrative deals. More recently, even as Dems have sought to dismiss Biden challenges and position him as his party's inevitable 2024 nominee, many Republicans have begun floating the idea that Biden's alleged involvement in his son's business dealings might merit an impeachment inquiry. West's potential role as 2024 spoiler has been raised by Democrats before. In July, for instance, Democrat strategist David Axelrod warned that a third-party candidacy by West could propel Trump to victory. Axelrod, a senior political commentator at CNN, wrote on Twitter that the Democrats should take West's potential Green Party nomination seriously, pointing to Jill Stein's run in 2016. "In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump. Now, with Cornel West as their likely nominee, they could easily do it again," Axelrod wrote. "Risky business." |
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