Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden find themselves tied in the key swing state of Michigan, a new poll of 1,121 Michigan voters conducted between August 1-2 finds.
In 2020, Michigan became one of the key states that Donald Trump was winning at the start of the night only to lose in the overnight hours. Biden won Michigan in 2020 by less than three points.
A new Emerson College poll finds the two candidates tied with 44 percent apiece.
Eight percent said they preferred someone other than the two candidates. When Green Party candidate Cornell West appeared among the candidate choices, Trump led Biden with 43 percent compared with 41 percent for Biden. West picked up 4 percent support.
Both Trump and Biden dominated their respective primary electorates. Among Democrats, Biden picked up 65 percent of Michigan primary voters while 11 percent said they supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and 5 percent said they backed Marianne Williamson. Another 17 percent of Michigan primary voters said they were undecided, a significant amount for a president seeking a second term in office.
It suggests that 33 percent of Michigan Democrats want someone other than Joe Biden as their candidate. It also could portend a reduced turnout in the 2024 election for the Democratic president. That could be a net positive for Trump.
A similar poll taken in June of Michigan voters likewise came out at 44 percent apiece.
2024 Election: Biden Faces Significant Headwinds
Joe Biden faces significant headwinds in the Wolverine State. Democrats need voter enthusiasm next year.
“Just over half of independent voters, 51 percent, disapprove of the job Biden is doing in office. This is a pivotal group in Michigan that Biden won over in 2020 yet is struggling with both nationally and statewide in recent surveys,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, told The Hill.
Democrats will no doubt do everything they can to keep West off of the ballot because of Biden’s weak polling. West, combined with weak support among Democrats for Biden, is a danger for Democrats.
Trump pulled off a narrow win over Hillary Clinton in 2016 due to her unpopularity.
By contrast, Barack Obama went into the 2012 election against Mitt Romney with around 51 percent support.
Trump, Biden Face Uncertainty Going into 2024
Neither Trump nor Biden is particularly popular with the electorate. Trump’s legal hurdles are going to make it harder for him to be on the campaign trail holding rallies. And as more evidence of Biden’s corruption emerges it could also turn off soft Democrat-leaning voters about coming out to vote for him.
Biden’s handling of his job as president has made many Americans uneasy. Overhyped rhetoric about how much of a threat Trump is to the Republicans may not be enough to save him come election time.
Americans see the nation’s debt downgraded from AAA to an AA+ rating by Fitch Ratings. The economy is the biggest issue for Michiganders. Although overall inflation is down. Core inflation in the areas of housing, energy, and food remains up.
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
