One term of President Joe Biden is quite enough for a majority of Democrats who are keen for someone, anyone to step forward and foil his stated ambition for reelection in 2024, a poll released Monday shows.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling holds the grim news for the White House incumbent. It comes just 24 hours before Biden gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The polling numbers reveal just 37 percent of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52 percent in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections.
AP sets out some of the things holding Biden back from achieving his ambition of a two-term presidency, from legislative failures to his health and age to fears he cannot work with Republicans controlling the House.
Watch below as Joe Biden stumbles his way through a public address
While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few U.S. adults give him high marks on either.
Follow-up interviews with poll respondents by AP suggest many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes and the possibility the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger.
“I, honestly, think that he would be too old,” said Sarah Overman, 37, a Democrat who works in education in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We could use someone younger in the office.”
The only known Republican contender for the 2024 election so far is former President Donald Trump.
Overall, 41 percent approve of how Biden is handling his job as president, the poll shows, similar to ratings at the end of last year.
A majority of Democrats still approve of the job Biden is doing as president, yet their appetite for a reelection campaign has slipped on the back of his day-to-day performance where he appears to appears to stumble (no pun intended) from one disappointment to the next.
Only 22 percent of U.S. adults overall say he should run again, down from 29 percent who said so before last year’s midterm elections.
Watch below as Joe Biden tries to stay upright and board Air Force One
The decline among Democrats saying Biden should run again for president appears concentrated among younger people. Among Democrats age 45 and over, 49 percent say Biden should run for reelection, nearly as many as the 58 percent who said that in October.
But among those under age 45, 23 percent now say he should run again against 45 percent who said that before the midterms.
The poll of 1,068 adults was conducted Jan. 26-30 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.