'Trump is a screaming lunatic': Reluctant Biden voters reveal why they'll back him in 2024
The 2024 election is likely to turn on the decision of voters who are dissatisfied with both candidates — whether they stick with President Joe Biden, opt for former President Donald Trump, or simply stay home or vote for a third-party campaign.
New data obtained by an Associated Press sponsored poll hints at what they are planning to do, and why.
To begin with, reported Bill Barrow and Linley Sanders, "Democrats are more likely to report feeling 'fearful' or 'angry' about the prospects of another term than Republicans are about the idea of Biden remaining in the White House," with roughly 7 in 10 Democrats versus just over half of Republicans.
Many of those voters are Biden skeptics, but view him as the only answer, as AP interviews reveal — and it's not just Democrats, but independents too.
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Derrick Johnson, a Democratic voter in Michigan, told respondents he has frustrations with the president but, “Donald Trump is a madman. I’m afraid he’ll have us in World War III. My message is anybody but Trump.” And Neil Murray, a retired independent in Arkansas who backed Trump in 2016 but switched to Biden in 2020, says he finds Biden "disingenuous on some things" but will not hesitate to vote for him again because “Donald Trump is a screaming lunatic.”
All of this occurs against the backdrop of focus groupers finding swing voters appalled at Trump — though such surveys tend not to have representative samples — and of Republicans facing fury and defections from traditionally right-favoring suburban areas over attacks on women's rights. This was demonstrated this week when Democrats flipped a Republican suburban legislative district outside Huntsville, Alabama; their candidate Marilyn Lands, is an ex-Republican who campaigned aggressively on protecting in vitro fertilization.