Election Day is under 200 days away. Voters aren't keen on rehiring Biden, new poll says

The 2024 presidential election is shaping up to look a little familiar. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are frontrunners for their parties, despite unhappy constituents on all sides of the aisle. Americans favored Trump over Biden — 49% compared to 43%, according to new polling from CNN,

Both frontrunners tested the Tennessee waters on Super Tuesday, when Trump won the Republican primary handedly and Biden struggled to turn out the vote. Even when Democrats did vote on Super Tuesday, over 10,000 voiced their grievances of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war by voting "uncommitted."

While Trump faces four sets of unprecedented criminal charges, his popularity among some Americans has continued to rise: 55% of voters say they now view Trump's first term as a success. In contrast, 44% see it as a failure.

Americans' tendency to look back at past presidencies with rose-colored glasses is common. Still, the overall opinion of Trump's presidency has markedly increased since he left office. A January 2021 poll, taken days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, showed that 55% of voters considered his presidency a failure.

The polling for Biden does not benefit from the same retrospection. Among those polled, 61% call his presidency a failure, and 39% said it's been a success, according to the poll released Sunday.

The poll was conducted by CNN between April 18-23 among a random national sample of 1,212 adults drawn from a probability-based panel, including 967 registered voters.

How did Trump and Biden do in previous elections?

Trump won Tennessee's 2016 Republican primary, but not with the overwhelming majority he has now. He edged Sen. Ted Cruz by about 14%.

Trump's 2020 primary success speaks for itself as the sitting president — he won 96% of the vote. He went on to win Tennessee handedly in that general election with 60% of the vote. The only counties he didn't win were Davison, Haywood and Shelby.

Biden has not benefitted from as much success in Tennessee. He was favorable to Democrats in 2020, winning the crowded primary with 41% of the vote, but went on to lose the state to Trump.

Will 'uncommitted' voters hurt Biden in the general election?

In 2024, Biden won 92% of Democrats' favor in the Tennessee primary. That sounds like a win but results included 10,000 Democrats who opted to vote for nobody, "uncommitted," over him.

The Uncommitted Movement aims to get antiwar, pro-peace, pro-Palestine voters to the ballot box to cast a vote and let "Biden know exactly how they feel."

"The movement has highlighted a clear disconnect between the Democratic party and key constituencies in their base," the Uncommitted Movement's website says. "These constituents are voters who helped deliver Biden the presidency in 2020, and who now feel deeply hurt and betrayed by the President’s decisions to continue funding war crimes and the mass killing of Palestinians."

Movements to vote "uncommitted" instead of supporting Biden aren't going away, and it could be a challenge for the president leading up to November. If he wants to beat Trump, he'll have to get young voters back on his side.

Kathika Senevirante, a 25-year-old transplant to Knoxville from Houston, used to judge people for not voting. But after voting "uncommitted" in the Democratic primary, he has a tough choice to make in November. He's not happy with Biden but knows the implications of not voting could be worse.

“Biden has been in power for a long time, so him and his party could have done something to codify Roe v. Wade and protect it,” he told the USA TODAY Network-Tennessee. “Seeing things online about what’s actually going on in Gaza, it did mess with me mentally. I just don’t have the heart to vote for somebody who’s supporting (Israel).”

Low turnout isn't just a problem for Joe Biden

Even though Trump won Tennessee comfortably in 2020, turnout in the state was among the lowest in the nation at 43%, well below the national youth-voting average of 50%.

The USA TODAY Network reported that in the 2022 midterm elections, Tennessee had the country's worst youth-voter turnout at just 12.7%..

And the phenomenon is prevalent among Republicans and Democrats. Knox County is different from Davidson and Shelby counties because of its strong Republican majority — there isn’t a single countywide elected Democrat. But even voters who would normally pick up Republican ballots are apprehensive this year because they feel the election is rigged, like their vote doesn't matter.

If the ballot looks the same each time, what's the point?

Dylan Bradley, a 22-year-old Knoxvillian, is one of those voters.

“I just feel like it doesn’t even matter, in my opinion,” Bradley said. “I don’t believe that my vote has much of an impact at all after the past two elections.”

And he doesn’t plan on voting in November.

“Once you lose faith in that, I don’t know what it would take to make me believe in that again.”

USA TODAY reporter Trevor Hughes contributed to this report.

Allie Feinberg reports on politics for Knox News. Email her: allie.feinberg@knoxnewsws.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @alliefeinberg.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Election Day 2024: What new poll says about Trump and Biden