It turns out that Donald Trump’s repeated claims that the 2020 election was rigged might have worked against him as he prepares his bid for the 2024 presidency. As shared by MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk Poll shows that support for the former president is high — among registered voters who feel they are unlikely to vote next year.
These likely nonvoters support Trump over Biden by nearly 20 points. USA Today’s Susan Page told Psaki, “These are already disenchanted folks who don’t believe that politics is working for them.”
As a result, these unlikely voters will probably sit out next year’s election. The reason is mostly due to Trump’s own rhetoric, though he seems unlikely to place the blame on himself.
Page added, “In this case, if only Trump could turn out these voters, he would have a different political landscape because they were so overwhelmingly in his camp over Joe Biden.”
“But,” she continued, “They have belief in the election is rigged, that their vote doesn’t count, and so why bother? It’s the kind of cynicism that keeps Americans home, even though these, the people who we surveyed, are people who are eligible to vote but tell us they probably aren’t going to bother.”
The new poll also revealed that 27% of the so-called unlikely voters support a third-party or other candidate. Unregistered voters also favor Trump over Biden 28% to 15%.
As David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, put it, “Be careful what you wish for. In a year of major political ironies, this is the irony of ironies with some turned-off Trump voters disgusted with voting and the election process.”
