President Biden and former President Trump are virtually tied at 37 percent in a hypothetical four-way presidential race in 2024 between Biden, Trump and independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West, according to a poll released Sunday.
The Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll surveyed 1,000 U.S. registered voters and showed 366 respondents (36.6 percent) support Biden, and 365 respondents (36.5 percent) support Trump.
Kennedy — who abandoned his campaign for the Democratic Party’s primary nomination and is now running as an independent — got 13 percent of the vote; West, who also has changed party affiliations and is now campaigning as an independent, got 4 percent of the vote; 8 percent said they were undecided, and 2 percent refused to answer.
The poll comes as support for the independent candidates remains notably high and could threaten both Trump’s and Biden’s chances of returning to the White House.
While Kennedy and Biden share some positions, such as championing the middle class, they have also differed in areas including foreign policy. And some of Kennedy’s views, such as his anti-interventionist stance on foreign policy and his well-known skepticism of vaccines, have resonated among Trump backers.
The overlap in Trump and Kennedy supporters can be seen in the latest poll. USA Today reported that Kennedy voters, by a 2-to-1 margin, said they would otherwise support Trump in the election.
The poll was conducted Oct. 17-20 by live phone interview. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.