Former President Donald Trump has been dealt a blow by a new poll that found that about 17% of conservative voters will vote for President Biden in the 2024 election.
The new survey of SurveyUSA puts Trump ahead by just one point after he was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday.
The poll found that of the 1,186 voters surveyed, 44% would vote for Trump and 43% for Biden. The two had been tied at 44% each, according to a previous poll.
This poll was conducted July 12-15. Of the 49% of voters surveyed before Saturday’s shooting, 46% said they would vote for Biden, and 42% said they would vote for Trump.
Despite Trump’s lead, the poll shows that he is failing to win over a segment of conservative voters: 17% of them say they would vote for Biden in the 2024 election.
Those numbers, experts say, speak to the task ahead for the Republican National Committee as it seeks to appeal to conservative voters to back Trump in his message of unity this week.
The former president is expected to use his first speech since surviving the assassination attempt to plead for national unity on Thursday, the final day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump told the Washington Examiner who had changed his speech after he was shot.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be spectacular,” he said. “If this hadn’t happened, it would have been one of the most incredible speeches,” aimed mainly at Biden’s policies, he added. “Honestly, it will be a completely different speech now. This is an opportunity to unite the entire country, even the entire world. The speech will be very different, very different than it would have been two days ago,” he added.
