A New York Times/Siena College poll revealed how much even his supporters worry about his age, intensifying what has become a grave threat to his re-election bid.
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(This candidate) is just too old to be an effective president.
Strongly
agree
Somewhat
agree
Somewhat
disagree
Strongly
disagree
Don’t know/
refused
21%
21%
23%
32%
Trump
77 years old
2%
47%
26%
14%
11%
Biden
81 years old
2%
(This candidate) is just too old to be
an effective president.
Trump, 77 years old
Strongly
agree
Somewhat
agree
Somewhat
disagree
Strongly
disagree
21%
21%
23%
32%
Don’t know/
refused 2%
Biden, 81
47%
26%
14%
11%
2%
Note: Figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.
Source: Based on a New York Times/Siena College poll of 980 registered voters conducted Feb. 25 to 28, 2024.
By Molly Cook Escobar
By Lisa Lerer and Ruth Igielnik
March 3, 2024, 5:03 a.m. ET
Widespread concerns about President Biden’s age pose a deepening threat to his re-election bid, with a majority of voters who supported him in 2020 now saying he is too old to lead the country effectively, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College.
The survey pointed to a fundamental shift in how voters who backed Mr. Biden four years ago have come to see him. A striking 61 percent said they thought he was “just too old” to be an effective president.
A sizable share was even more worried: Nineteen percent of those who voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, and 13 percent of those who said they would back him in November, said the 81-year-old president’s age was such a problem that he was no longer capable of handling the job.
The misgivings about Mr. Biden’s age cut across generations, gender, race and education, underscoring the president’s failure to dispel both concerns within his own party and Republican attacks painting him as senile. Seventy-three percent of all registered voters said he was too old to be effective, and 45 percent expressed a belief that he could not do the job.
This unease, which has long surfaced in polls and in quiet conversations with Democratic officials, appears to be growing as Mr. Biden moves toward formally capturing his party’s nomination. The poll was conducted more than two weeks after scrutiny of his age intensified in early February, when a special counsel described him in a report as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” and “diminished faculties in advancing age.”
Previous polling suggests that voters’ reservations about Mr. Biden’s age have grown over time. In six top battleground states surveyed in October, 55 percent of those who voted for him in 2020 said they believed he was too old to be an effective president, a sharp increase from the 16 percent of Democrats who shared that concern in a slightly different set of swing states in 2020.
Thinking again about (this candidate)’s age, which of
the following statements comes closer to your view,
even if neither is exactly right?
Age makes him
ineffective, but
still able to handle
job well enough
Not too old to
be an effective
president
Not capable of
handling job of
president
56%
21%
19%
Trump
Don’t know/
refused 4%
25%
26%
45%
Biden
4%
Thinking again about (this candidate)’s
age, which of the following statements
comes closer to your view,
even if neither is exactly right?
Age makes him
ineffective, but
still able to handle
job well enough
Not too old to
be an effective
president
Not capable of
handling job of
president
56%
21%
19%
Trump
Don’t know/
refused 4%
25%
26%
45%
Biden
4%
Thinking again about (this candidate)’s
age, which of the following statements
comes closer to your view,
even if neither is exactly right?
Age makes him
ineffective, but
still able to handle
job well enough
Not too old to
be an effective
president
Not capable of
handling job of
president
56%
21%
19%
Trump
Don’t know/
refused 4%
25%
26%
45%
Biden
4%
Note: Figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.
Source: Based on a New York Times/Siena College poll of 980 registered voters conducted Feb. 25 to 28, 2024.
By Molly Cook Escobar
Share who think Joe Biden …
… should be the
Democratic nominee
… should not be the
Democratic nominee
50%
46%
45%
45%
July 2023
Feb. 2024
July 2023
Feb. 2024
Share who think Joe Biden …
… should be the
Democratic nominee
… should not be the
Democratic nominee
50%
46%
45%
45%
July 2023
Feb. 2024
July 2023
Feb. 2024
Source: Based on New York Times/Siena College polls of Democratic primary voters conducted July 2023 and February 2024.
By Molly Cook Escobar
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Source: nytimes.com
