A large number of Black voters think President Joe Biden should not remain in the presidential race, according to recent polls.
Biden is facing escalating pressure to step aside following the June 27 debate against former President Donald Trump in which he repeatedly struggled to complete sentences.
The 81-year-old president’s rocky performance sparked panic among some Democrats about his age and capacity to serve another term as president and beat Trump in November. A growing chorus of Democrats is now calling on Biden to step aside and be replaced at the top of the Democratic ticket ahead of the election.
Biden has repeatedly insisted he will stay in the race. He received a warm welcome at a Black church in Philadelphia on Sunday as he worked to reassure voters and save his embattled reelection campaign.
However, two recent polls found that Black voters—a demographic that helped send Biden to the White House in 2020—think Biden should not stay in the race.
Recent polls have shown Biden is losing support among Black voters, a critical part of his base. While Black voters still overwhelmingly back Biden over Trump, small shifts in voting patterns could ultimately sway races in crucial battleground states and affect the outcome of November’s election.
Newsweek reached out to the Biden campaign via email for comment.
A nationwide New York Times/Siena College poll conducted between June 28 and July 2 found that 47 percent of Black voters think there should be a different Democratic nominee, while 43 percent think Biden should remain as the party’s nominee.
Overall, that poll found 60 percent of registered voters think there should be a different nominee. Democrats were split—48 percent said Biden should remain the nominee, while 47 percent said it should be someone else.
Meanwhile, a CBS News/YouGov poll conducted during the same period as the Times poll found that 42 percent of Black voters think Biden should not run for president, while 58 percent think he should. Overall, 69 percent of voters think Biden shouldn’t run, but only 41 percent of Democrats said the same.
However, both polls found that a majority of Black voters would still vote for Biden over Trump: 73 percent told the Times survey they would vote for Biden if the election were held today, while 77 percent said they would cast their ballot for Biden in the CBS News poll.
Other polls have also found Black voters are continuing to back Biden, while Trump’s remarks about migrants taking “Black jobs” during the debate may have caused him damage among the demographic.
A CBS News/YouGov poll that surveyed voters between June 28 and 29 found more Black voters thought Biden had “won” the debate: 39 percent said Biden did the better job, 25 percent said Trump did, and 35 percent thought it was a tie. That poll found 55 percent of Black voters thought Biden should be running, while 45 percent said he should not.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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