Biden, Trump tied at outset of US election year

WASHINGTON — US President Joe Biden and his leading Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, start the election year in a dead heat as many Americans appear to be unenthusiastic about their choices, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday (Jan 10) found.
With the state-by-state nominating contest set to kick off with Republican caucuses in Iowa on Monday, 35 per cent of respondents in the nationwide survey said they would vote for Biden, the same percentage as said they would vote for Trump.
Nearly one-third of respondents indicated they did not support either candidate. Some 13 per cent said they would not vote, while nine per cent said they would back another candidate and eight per cent said they were unsure.
When forced to choose between the two, respondents were equally divided, with 48 per cent supporting each.
The poll found a clear interest in third-party candidates. Anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a scion of the famed political dynasty who is running as an independent, won the backing of 18 per cent of respondents when he was included as an option. That knocked Biden's support in a three-way matchup down to 29 per cent and Trump's support to 30 per cent.
The online, randomized survey of 4,677 US adults was conducted nationwide, not focused on particular early-voting states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
But it shows that Biden and Trump start the year as strong favorites for their party's nomination.
Trump leads his Republican rivals by a margin of more than 37 percentage points, while neither of Biden's two challengers for the Democratic nomination got more than two per cent support from the party's voters.
The survey reflected the polarised state of US politics, as 76 per cent of Democrats said they would vote for Biden in the Nov 5 election and 76 per cent of Republicans said they would back Trump.
Independent voters were not enthusiastic about either candidate. Just 17 per cent said they would vote for Trump and 11 per cent said they would back Biden. Meanwhile, 41 per cent of this group said they would not vote at all.
The online randomized poll was conducted Jan 3 through Jan 9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points.
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