President Joe Biden holds single-digit edges over both former President Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll finds, but nearly 1 in 4 voters say they would support a third-party candidate if the election was held today.
In a potential rematch of the 2020 contest, Biden is backed by 34% and Trump by 32%; 23% say they would support an unspecified independent contender. In a choice between Biden and DeSantis, Biden leads the Florida governor by 33%-26%; 25% indicate they would vote for a third-party candidate.
The findings underscore both how close the race for the White House continues to be and how dissatisfied many voters are with their most likely choices. Support for independent candidates typically fades as elections near, but at the moment, interest in voting beyond the two major parties is historically high.
No third-party candidate has managed to get as much as 20% of the national vote since former president Teddy Roosevelt was the Progressive Party nominee in 1912.
The nationwide survey of 1,000 registered voters, taken June 5-9 by landline and cellphone, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Biden’s two-point advantage over Trump is too close to be statistically significant, but his seven-point lead over DeSantis is just outside the poll’s error margin.
In a Biden-Trump contest, 13% of Democrats and 13% of Republicans say they would support a third-party contender, as do 41% of independents. DeSantis loses a greater proportion of voters in the GOP, at 19%.
