A new Gallup report finds that nearly one in three Americans believes neither Joseph Biden nor Donald Trump would be a good president.
Split three ways, U.S. adults say only Donald Trump (35%, up 2% since 2020), only Joseph Biden (30%, down 6% since 2020) or neither of the major party candidates (29%, up 4% since 2020) would carry out the duties of the president well. A small minority of those surveyed say that neither of the men would perform well (4%, down 1% since 2020).
The results are partisan. More than three-quarters of Republicans (77%) say Trump would be a good president. Across the aisle, 71% of Democrats believe Biden is better suited for the office.
Gallup also found that about one in five Democrats (21%) and Republicans (18%) thought that neither Biden nor Trump would make a good president. This is up six percentage points for Republicans and two percentage points for Democrats, respectively, compared to 2020.
Respondents who say neither Biden nor Trump would be a good president were asked by Gallup what their “voting intentions” were for November. Almost half (46%) say they will vote for a third-party candidate. Seventeen percent of those polled say they will not cast a vote for president. In addition, another 33% say they will likely vote for Biden or Trump.
“Americans are in a rare position this year, choosing between two presidential candidates who have already performed the job,” Megan Brenan, a research consultant for Gallup, writes. “Without the guesswork in evaluating one or both candidates, the public is divided in its views on who would make a good president — Biden, Trump or neither of them, with few saying both.”
Read the full report here.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
