Biden Backfire: Washington Post poll says swing state voters trust Trump more on democracy

A majority of swing-state voters on Wednesday said they trust former President Donald Trump more than President Joe Biden when it comes to protecting democracy, according to a new poll from the Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

A little more than half of respondents in told the Washington Post that threats to democracy are extremely important to their vote for president, but 44% said they think Trump would do a better job at handling those threats. Only 33% of respondents said they believe Biden would, and 16% said neither.

The poll looks at voters in six swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. It also divided the respondents into regular swing state voters, and "deciders" who either: Voted in only one of the past two presidential elections, are between ages 18 and 25, been registered to vote since 2022, did not definitively plan to vote for either Biden or Trump this year, or switched their support between 2016 and 2020.

The numbers do not bode well for Biden, who has tried to emphasize Trump's role in the January 6 riot, his denial of the results of the 2020 presidential election, his claims of widespread voter fraud, and his claims that he will use the federal government to prosecute his enemies. 

“Many Americans don’t recognize Biden’s custodianship of our democracy, which is a bad sign for his campaign,” Justin Gest, a professor of policy and government at George Mason University told the outlet.

The poll was conducted in April and May, and polled more than 3,500 registered voters. Of those surveyed, 2,255 were "deciders." It had a margin of error of +/- 2.9 percentage points.