- Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters by five points, 39%-34%, and among younger voters by three points, 37%-34%
- The results came in the new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll
- Polls also show that support for Biden among black voters is declining
Donald Trump is beating Joe Biden in two key voter groups, giving him an overall lead in the presidential race, the first new poll of 2024 shows.
Trump leads Biden among Hispanic voters by five points, 39%-34%, and among younger voters by three points, 37%-34%, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University survey.
Biden won both voting groups in the 2020 presidential contest, where he defeated Trump and won the White House. Monday's poll also shows Biden losing support among black voters, another key voting bloc.
He now has the support of just 63% of Black voters, a group he carried by as much as 87% in 2020.
Overall, the poll showed Trump leading with 39%, compared to Biden's 37%, with 17% supporting an unnamed third party.
When third-party candidates were mentioned by name, Trump's lead increased to 37% and Biden's to 34%, with independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. topped third-party candidates by 10%.
The overall trend is troubling for Biden, especially among younger voters, who overwhelmingly supported him four years ago and largely disagree with Republicans on issues such as abortion access and climate change.
And some of the president's support appears to have gone to third parties. The poll found that 20% of Hispanic and Black voters, along with 21% of young voters, say they will support someone other than the top two contenders.
Multiple polls have shown that voters want an alternative candidate for the 2024 presidential election, with concerns raised about Biden's age. At 81 years old, he is the oldest American president in history. If he wins a second term, he would be 86 when this one is over.
However, in the poll, 74% of likely Democratic primary voters support Biden, while only 9% support author Marianne Williamson and 2% support Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips.
“While Trump has failed to gain support among Black voters, he has closed the gap as third-party voters benefit from Biden's support among Black voters,” David Paleologos, director of the Political Research Center in Suffolk, told USA Today.
“A young voter or a person of color who votes for 'third party' is one vote away from President Biden, and one vote away from President Biden is a vote for Donald Trump.”
The survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted Tuesday through Friday via landline and cell phone, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
A new poll found that a significant portion of President Joe Biden's support among key voting blocs appears to have gone to third-party candidates
Donald Trump leads Biden in a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll
Meanwhile, Trump, 77, is leading the polls for the Republican nomination, although the first nominating contests won't begin for a few weeks.
But the poll found that 44% of the former president's supporters describe themselves as a “10” when it comes to their support for him. Among Biden supporters, only 18% call themselves a “10.”
Trump has managed to retain his core, devoted group of followers despite his own problems, including two pending criminal cases in federal court and two in state courts — New York and Georgia.