Recently appointed House Speaker Mike Johnson unequivocally expressed his support on Tuesday for the potential return of former President Donald Trump to the White House.
“I have endorsed him wholeheartedly. Look, I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress,” Johnson (R-La.) told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “He had a phenomenal first term those first two years.”
“We brought about the greatest economic numbers in the history of the world, not just the country, because his policies worked and I’m all in for President Trump,” Johnson continued. “I expect he’ll be our nominee, yeah, and he’s gonna win it and we have to make Biden a one-term president.”
“I’m all in for President Trump and I expect he will be our nominee –we have to make Biden a one-term president.” Says GOP House Speaker @SpeakerJohnson in his first endorsement of Trump as Speaker. “We have to make radical changes; the American people are hurting.”
A recent poll indicates that former President Donald Trump is currently positioned to outperform President Joe Biden in two critical areas, contributing to the concerns for Democrats leading up to next year’s crucial election.
“A new poll from Stack Data Strategy found that Trump would beat Biden in the Electoral College, 292 to 246, if an election were held today,” the Washington Examiner reported. “Biden is still on track to win the popular vote, 49% to 48%, but he is projected to lose four battleground states he won in 2020, a blow to the president as he works to build his reelection campaign in states that house a heavy pro-Trump base.”
The survey also revealed that President Biden would not secure victories in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—the same four states that shifted from supporting Trump in 2016 to Biden in 2020, determining the outcome of the former president’s quest for a second term.
Among all states in the 2020 election, these four are expected to have the slimmest margins, all below 1.5 points. Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin, in particular, indicate margins under 1 point in favor of Biden. Notably, there is a substantial shift in favor of Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania, with margins of plus 2.3 points and plus 3.3 points, respectively, as reported by the Examiner, citing the poll.
“Our research is the largest exercise of its kind so far this cycle, and we can confidently say that as things currently stand, if Donald Trump is selected as the Republican candidate, he is likely to win,” Joe Bedell, head of Stack Data Strategy in North America, said, according to the outlet.
“Despite recent calls for change, our polling shows that neither party would benefit from a change in candidate, [and]President Trump would beat both of Biden’s possible replacements by an even greater margin,” he added.
The pollster considered potential alternatives to Biden, including Vice President Kamala Harris and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Despite Newsom indicating that he is not interested in running for president in this cycle, he has been actively elevating his national profile over the past few months.
The Examiner reported:
The poll also does not provide comfort to third-party candidates and organizations that are looking for a unity ticket to run against Biden and Trump in 2024. No Labels, the most vocal third-party group this election cycle, has explained that launching a unity ticket may become necessary in 2024 “in the event both major parties nominate presidential candidates that the vast majority of Americans don’t want.”
A No Labels presentation in October found that having a Republican on top in a three-way race in eight battleground states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — is the third-party group’s “best chance of winning.” This has caused panic among Democratic lawmakers and allies who worry that No Labels’s third-party efforts will aid the GOP and secure a Trump win.
Democrats at the national level remain anxious about the declining approval ratings of Biden and growing apprehensions regarding his cognitive decline. Additionally, certain Democratic consultants have cautioned party leaders, asserting that they may have “misunderstood” the extent of support for Biden among certain voting blocs, including blacks and Muslims. Many within these groups were not particularly enthusiastic about Biden but voted for him as a countermeasure against Trump.
“People fundamentally misunderstood what black voters said in 2020,” Cliff Albright, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, said in an interview with the Washington Post. “The depth of support was never there. The enthusiasm was never there for Biden. We were very pragmatic. We knew he was the best chance to beat Trump.”
