How would Trump fare against other Democrats? Poll looks at Biden alternatives

In a worrying sign for Democrats, President Joe Biden is trailing behind former President Donald Trump in numerous polls.

But, should Biden step aside, other prominent Democrats would fare even worse against Trump if the election were held today, according to a new poll.

Vice President Kamala Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would all lose to Trump by wider margins than Biden in a hypothetical generation election match-up, according to a Feb. 16 poll from Emerson College.

The poll, conducted between Feb. 13 and 14, sampled 1,225 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points.

Of the three hypothetical Democrat alternatives, Harris came the closest to beating Trump, trailing him by three points with 43% versus his 46%, the poll found.

Newsom, considered a rising star in the party, who has stumped for Biden, performed far worse, scoring 36% versus 46%.

Whitmer performed similarly poorly, attaining 33% versus Trump’s 45%.

Meanwhile, Biden came in just one percentage point behind Trump — with 44% versus 45%.

The results appear to clash with a growing sentiment among liberal pundits and political strategists, who have called on Biden to step aside in order to bolster Democrats’ chances of victory in 2024.

In February, Nate Silver, founder of the polling site FiveThirtyEight, and Ezra Klein, a New York Times columnist, both wrote that the president — on account of his age and mental fitness — may best serve the country by dropping out of the race.

In November, David Axelrod, a former Obama Administration strategist, pressed Biden to consider passing the torch to the next generation.

“There is a lot of leadership talent in the Democratic Party, poised to emerge,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

However, Biden has shown no signs he is contemplating stepping aside, recently assuaging concerns about his mental acuity, saying “my memory is fine.”

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