Though polling shows that many Americans don’t even want him in the race, former President Donald Trump, while facing four criminal cases, also continues his latest run for president. New polling done for Fox News shows him falling behind incumbent President Joe Biden in the scenario in which the two face each other for a second time in next year’s general election.
Trump nabbed 41 percent of the support when the two candidates were pitted against each other, while Biden had 44 percent. A full 12 percent of respondents said they’d go with someone else. Presidential elections are not decided nationally, meaning these national figures — even if they hold — wouldn’t necessarily mean a victory for Biden and the Democrats, though that’s certainly the direction the numbers are leaning. Still, Biden’s overall lead in the national popular vote from 2020 was larger than his lead in this survey. In the results from 2020, his leading margin sailed past four percent nationally.
In the Fox polling, Biden also led other Republican presidential contenders, though Trump remains the front-runner in that party’s primary. Against Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, Biden had a lead of five percentage points, and the portion saying they’d vote for somebody else reached 14 percent.
DeSantis was previously considered to have promising prospects in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination heading into 2024, but he has since sunk. He has also been plagued by arguable missteps around his public image, like his recent answer to the question of how he would respond if his child told him they were gay or transgender. He didn’t bluntly say in reply that he’d stick with the child. He has prominently targeted LGBTQ+ Floridians as governor. Debate prep associated with the governor also recently leaked that included notes on proposed nicknames for opposition and interest in defending Trump… who is currently DeSantis’s opponent. It’s been seen repeatedly among the Republicans trying to win the nomination over Trump that they’ve refused to condemn him.
