A poll shows that former President Donald Trump, a Republican, has pulled ahead of current President Joe Biden, a Democrat, on the eve of the latter's planned State of the Union address this week in Congress.
Trump has a 3% advantage over Biden, who has 47%. 1% said they would vote for someone else, 3% said they would not vote for either Trump or Biden, 2% said they would not vote, and 1% said they had no opinion, according to a report by Breitbart News.
The poll, conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, represents a five-point swing in Trump's favor over the pollster's previous national survey, conducted in September, which showed Biden leading Trump 48 percent to 46 percent.
The survey, which was conducted from January 27 to February 1, polled 1,003 American adults and has a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
This means that the poll was completed before the public learned about a Chinese Communist Party suspected surveillance balloon hovering over the continental United States—the story broke last Thursday evening, and the poll was completed on Wednesday.
The balloon story captivated the nation's attention, and Republicans have slammed Biden. Trump has stated that he would have shot down the balloon much sooner than Biden did.
The current president allowed the balloon to travel across the entire country before shooting it down over the Atlantic Ocean. The poll showing Trump ahead of Biden in 2024 comes just days before Biden's State of the Union address in Congress on Tuesday night.
Republicans have already been criticizing Biden in the run-up to the speech, with some, like Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), threatening to boycott the president's address.
The poll also comes on the heels of news that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who later served as the United States ambassador to the United Nations during Trump's presidency, plans to launch her own Republican presidential campaign in mid-February in Charleston, South Carolina.
Haley's announcement is the first of several other Republicans who are expected to challenge Trump. Just this weekend, New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced that he, too, is considering a run.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among others, are reportedly considering running, as is Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Other Republicans running against or considering running against Trump argue that Trump would be weaker than a different candidate against Biden in 2024 and that Trump could blow it for the GOP. Sununu made precisely that point during an appearance on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday.
However, now that polls show Trump leading Biden — including polls from establishment media outlets like the Washington Post and ABC News — it is much more difficult for other Republicans to deny Trump's very serious ongoing national popularity.
A number of recent polls have shown Trump performing better than DeSantis against Biden, including a recent Harvard-Harris poll that showed Trump beating Biden by 5 points, while DeSantis only led by 3. Trump also outperformed DeSantis when it came to Vice President Kamala Harris, leading her by 8 points to DeSantis's 3 points.
