Six months before Election Day, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are tied 37%-37% in an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll as millions of Americans’ votes remain up for grabs.
While the nation’s fierce polarization has set many political preferences in stone, 1 in 4 registered voters (24%) say they might change their minds ahead of November’s election, and 12% haven’t made a choice yet. The new survey provides a road map of the persuadables most open to appeals in a campaign being shaped by sharp divides on abortion and immigration as well as an unprecedented criminal trial of a former president, now underway in New York.
What’s more, 8% are now supporting independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and an additional 5% backing other third-party contenders. Most of their supporters acknowledge they might switch their allegiances before they cast a ballot.
Tiffany Batton, 43, an independent from Chicago who was among those surveyed, plans to vote for Biden. “He inherited a lot of problems from the last administration,” the social worker said in a follow-up phone interview. “I feel like, if given a chance, he could fulfill some of those campaign promises if he had another four years.”
But she might change her mind, depending on what happens in the Mideast and elsewhere. “The war in Israel has been weighing really heavy on me,” she said.
Brett Watchom, 36, a shipping clerk from Denver who is also an independent, backs Kennedy, attracted by his position on housing and because he is “the only one not part of the horrible uni-party machine.”
