A new poll of swing states released Wednesday shows that more of the country’s most influential voters trust former President Donald Trump to handle threats to democracy than President Joe Biden.
In a survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Schar School of Politics and Government at George Mason University38 percent of so-called “deciders” in six swing states say Trump is a better steward of democracy.
That’s compared to 29 percent of “deciders” who say the same about Biden, who has focused his campaign on characterizing Trump as an authoritarian threat.
Pollsters interviewed voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin (six states where Biden beat Trump in 2020) and then identified which demographic groups would likely determine the outcome in 2024.
The “deciders” – those likely to influence the election – were determined by whether they fit into one or more of these key groups: young people aged 18 to 25, those who voted in only one of the last two presidential elections, those who changed their votes between 2016 and 2020 and those who definitely did not plan to vote for Trump or Biden.
President Joe Biden has based his re-election bid on the hope that voters will see former President Donald Trump as a threat to democracy after January 6 and vow to be a “dictator” from day one.
However, that message doesn’t seem to be working among “deciders” – those most likely to influence the outcome of the election – as 38 percent to 29 percent see Trump as the candidate who would make a better work managing threats to democracy.
When the entire population surveyed was asked about democracy, an even larger group (44 percent) said Trump would do a better job of handling threats to democracy.
“Many Americans do not recognize Biden’s stewardship of our democracy, which is a bad sign for his campaign,” Justin Gest, a professor of politics and government at George Mason University, told The Washington Post.
Biden has hinged his re-election chances on the hope that voters see Trump’s threat to democracy above concerns about inflation and immigration, two key issues that the Republican has used against Biden.
The current president has pointed to January 6 and Trump’s threat to be a “dictator” day number one if he succeeds in November.
Trump has responded by pointing to his 88 criminal charges, accusing Biden and Democrats of using the Justice Department as a weapon against the former president.
That same Justice Department charged Biden’s son, Hunter, with firearms offenses, and he was found guilty of two felonies in Delaware earlier this month.
The first of two scheduled debates will take place Thursday night at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of corporate fraud in New York related to hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels before Election Day 2016.
Biden has also pointed to comments Trump has made about obtaining “retaliation” against his political enemies by prosecuting them using the Justice Department, which is supposed to operate independently of the White House.
In total, the survey surveyed 3,513 registered voters in the six key states and identified 2,255 as “deciders.”
The survey was conducted from mid-April to the end of May.
While a majority of decision-makers (56 percent) see democracy as an extremely important issue in the election, a larger group of Trump and Biden voters do.
Among Biden voters, 78 percent said they believed democracy was an extremely important issue, while 71 percent of Trump voters agreed.
That means Biden’s message of saving democracy may not be powerful for the group of voters he needs to swing to his side.
Biden and Trump will face off for the first time on the debate stage Thursday night at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.