Sirens blare for Biden’s campaign as Trump slowly takes lead in state where GOP hasn’t won in 24 years
Polls following the failed debate with Joe Biden show a decline in support for the president’s re-election.
Biden’s campaign is ignoring the post-debate polls, claiming any decline is the result of “exaggerated media narrative.”
But for the first time this election campaign, former President Donald Trump has taken a lead in the liberal state of New Hampshire, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in more than two decades.
After the debate, a chorus of Democrats called for Biden, 81, to withdraw from his re-election race and give a younger candidate the chance to lead the party into November.
The final poll of 1,764 voters in New Hampshire on June 28 and 29 — the two days after the debate in Atlanta, Georgia — showed Trump ahead of Biden by two points.
A post-debate poll in New Hampshire shows Donald Trump ahead of Joe Biden for the first time in the past year
Although just slightly within the St. Anselm College Survey With a margin of error of 2.3 percent, it is the first time that former President Biden has been ahead in this poll.
A year earlier, in June 2023, Biden had a 9-point lead over Trump — 49 percent to 40 percent. And in December 2023, the incumbent president had a 10-point lead — 49 percent to 39 percent.
The poll is even more shocking when you consider that Biden won New Hampshire by 7.3 percent and that the state has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 24 years, having gone for George W. Bush in 2000.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the leading independent candidate in the race, received 4 percent of the vote in the poll released Monday.
Biden had a hoarse voice during the debate, partly due to a cold from his campaign, and he often mumbled and was difficult to understand.
“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either,” Trump said in response to Biden’s comments about 12 minutes into the head-to-head.
Another study was published by USA Today/Suffolk University on Tuesday, showing Trump leading Biden 41 percent to 38 percent. The narrow advantage compares to the 37 percent tie the two had in the same poll in May — before the debate.
Biden stumbled through the debate and his performance led to immediate calls for him to step down and let another candidate emerge as the Democratic nominee in 2024
Even before the polls showed a negative message for Biden after he failed at the CNN debate in Atlanta, his campaign downplayed any potential decline.
“On all important counts, the data shows that it has not changed the perception of the American people, our supporters are higher than ever and Donald Trump has only reminded voters why they fired him four years ago and failed to broaden his appeal beyond his MAGA base,” wrote Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager.
She added: ‘If we see changes in the polls in the coming weeks, it won’t be the first time that exaggerated media stories have caused temporary drops in the polls.’
A CNN flash poll which was released shortly after the showdown on Thursday, June 27, found that 67 percent of viewers thought Trump performed better, compared to the 33 percent who said Biden performed better.
In 2020, viewers thought Biden outperformed Trump in both presidential debates.