Majority of Americans plan to watch first debate, believe it will be crucial to both campaigns: Poll

Most Americans are planning to watch the first presidential debate on Thursday, and believe the discourse in the debate will be crucial to both candidate's bids for the White House, a new poll found Wednesday.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who are the two frontrunners for the November election, will participate in the debate on June 27, which will be hosted by CNN. 

Nearly 60% of respondents (57%) responded to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll that they are "somewhat" or "extremely" likely to watch the debate in some capacity, and 37% said they were "extremely" likely to watch it live. 

Both parties see the debate as an important part of their candidate's campaign. But a greater majority of Democrats (55%) believe the debate will be "extremely" or "very important" for Biden's success. Just over half of Republicans (51%) said the same for Trump.

“I think it’s super important,” Victoria Perdomo, a Trump supporter in Florida, told the AP. “It shows America what you’re going to see for the next four years.”

Both candidates are also still having trouble motivating voters. Less than half of the survey's Democratic respondents (42%) said they were satisfied with Biden as their candidate, and 59% of Republicans said they were satisfied with Trump.

The poll was conducted from June 20 through June 24, and surveyed 1,088 U.S. adults. It had a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.