Former first lady Michelle Obama easily bested former president Donald Trump in a hypothetical polling matchup, making her the only Democrat to do so.
Obama garnered 50 percent support among registered voters compared to Trump’s 39 percent, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Only 4 percent said they would not vote at all in a potential race between Obama and Trump. In comparison, the presumptive Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, was evenly matched with his Republican opponent at 40 percent. Eight percent said they would vote for another candidate in that case, and an additional 8 percent said they wouldn’t vote.
The former first lady has remained the top choice to replaceme Biden on the ticket since a Rasmussen Reports poll from February suggested as much, though she has maintained that she is not interested in making a run at returning to the White House.
Since Biden’s lackluster debate performance on CNN last Thursday, figures in the Democratic Party and news media have amped up speculation that the 81-year-old incumbent could be replaced ahead of the August Democratic National Convention. Even the editorial boards of prominent newspapers, including the New York Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, advocated for him to drop out of the race and make room for a younger candidate.
Vice President Kamala Harris is at the top of that list. In the Reuters/Ipsos poll, she trailed Trump by one point; and in a CNN poll also released Tuesday, Harris was behind the presumptive Republican nominee by two points.
On Monday, former representative Tim Ryan (D., Ohio) made the case for Harris to replace Biden in a Newsweek op-ed. A day later, Representative James Clyburn (D., S.C.) reiterated his support for Harris if Biden were to bow out. Without making an endorsement for Harris or anyone else, Representative Lloyd Doggett (D., Texas) became the first Democratic member of Congress to publicly call for Biden to withdraw.
Despite some public calls for her to replace Biden, Harris publicly defended him, declaring at a Las Vegas rally on Friday that “we believe in our President Joe Biden” and “this race will not be decided by one night in June.”
Meanwhile, alternative Democratic candidates also trailed Trump in both polls.
Governors Gavin Newsom of California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois all fell behind Trump by a range of 3 to 6 points in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. CNN’s post-debate poll also showed Trump beating Biden, Newsom, Whitmer, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg — all outside of the margin of error of 3.5 points.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows 32 percent of Democrats saying Biden should drop out of the race in the days following the debate, adding to the combined average of total voters (56 percent) who agree with that statement. Despite voters’ current perception of the president, the White House and Biden’s campaign indicated he would continue campaigning.