More Americans than ever before dislike both major party presidential candidates leading into the 2024 election, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.
A quarter of all Americans dislike both President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump, the highest percentage of people to hold negative views of both candidates since 1988, Pew Research found.
Pew surveyed 8,638 American adults from May 13-19, prior to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in New York. Later this month, Biden and Trump are set to debate on CNN for the first time this election cycle.
Only 3 percent of Americans view Biden and Trump favorably. Slightly over a third, 36 percent, are favorable towards Trump and not Biden, and 34 percent are favorable towards Biden and not Trump.
Rising partisanship on both sides is reflected in the attitudes towards the presidential candidates. Two thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaners view Biden positively, and eight percent of them view Trump positively. Likewise, 74 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners have a positive opinion of Trump, and 6 percent feel positively about Biden.
Both candidates have lower overall favorability than 2020, with Trump at 39 percent and Biden at 37 percent favorability in Pew’s survey. Similar to Biden, 60 percent of Americans view vice president Kamala Harris unfavorably, compared to 36 percent who hold a favorable view of her.
The negative approval ratings extend to congressional leaders, Pew Research observed. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) is looked at unfavorably by 37 percent of Americans, and 24 percent see him favorably. But, 37 percent of Americans have not heard of Johnson, who only took his current role last year upon the ouster of former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.).
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) is viewed unfavorably by 46 percent of Americans, and favorably by 27, with 25 percent of Americans not having heard of him.
Four years ago, 13 percent of Americans held negative opinions of both Biden and Trump. Biden was viewed favorably by 46 percent of Americans and 42 percent had a favorable opinion of Trump.
In 2016, 20 percent of Americans viewed Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton unfavorably. Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election after Trump won against Clinton in 2016.
Before 2016, 11 percent of Americans disliked then-president Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney at this point in the 2012 presidential election. Similar amounts of Americans in 2008 disliked Democratic nominee Obama and Republican nominee John McCain.
However, over a quarter of Democrats and Democratic-leaners viewed McCain positively in 2008, and vice versa for Republicans and Republican-leaners with Obama.