Poll: Biden outpaces Trump, others in Maryland; public split on handling of pandemic

Republican Donald Trump would fare worse in a 2024 rematch in Maryland versus President Joseph Biden than he did in 2020, according to a new poll released Wednesday.

Trump, who faces four criminal indictments and is the presumed frontrunner in his party, also fares worse against Biden than most other Republican hopefuls. None of them garner enough support to defeat Biden in Maryland in a hypothetical matchup roughly a year from the general election.

“With an almost 81-year-old incumbent president, and a 77-year-old former president as the leading challenger, there are some who believe it is time, once again, to pass the torch to a new generation,” said pollster Patrick Gonzales. “But, for now, we’ve got what we’ve got.”

The results are part of a poll conducted by Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services between Sept. 18 and Sept. 28 of 818 registered Maryland voters who said that they are likely to vote in the 2024 general election. The margin of error for the poll is 3.5%.

In a head-to-had rematch between the current and former president, Biden bests Trump 56% to 30% in Maryland, with 13% undecided.

In the 2020 election, Biden won Maryland with 65.4% of the vote compared to Trump’s 32.2%.

Nearly nine in 10 Maryland Democrats support Biden while 77% of Maryland Republicans would back Trump. Independent voters would break 38% to 31%, in favor of Biden.

Voter registration in Maryland runs roughly 2-to-1 in favor of Democrats over Republicans.

The poll looked at Biden versus three other Republican challengers: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who has never held elected office.

None of them break 40%.

Haley does best, polling at 36% and losing to Biden by 17 points.

DeSantis garners 35% of the vote but Biden, who polls at 56% against the Florida Republican, wins the contest by 21 points.

Ramaswamy, who was scheduled to speak at a Prince George’s County Republican Central Committee dinner in Bowie on Tuesday night, loses to Biden in a 27-point Old Line State drubbing — the worst showing of the four Republicans in the poll.

A majority of voters are also expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the country.

Overall, the poll found that six in 10 people surveyed said the country was moving in the wrong direction.

The number is driven by 90% of Republicans and 76% of independents who said the current state of the country is disappointing.

The number of people who said the country was on the right track, 37%, is roughly 8-points higher than in a June Gonzales Poll. Those who expressed satisfaction with the current state of the country tended to be Democrats, 57%, or Black voters, 53%, according to the poll.

Public divided on handling of pandemic and mask mandates, but majority will get a booster vaccination

More than three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, voters in Maryland are almost evenly split in their approval of how the federal government handled the health emergency.

Of those surveyed, 49% said they disapproved compared to 49% who approved. Democrats, women, and Black voters were more likely to say they approved. Meanwhile, nearly seven of 10 Republicans and 56% of independents and 56% of white voters disapproved.

Majorities of Republican and independent voters said they did not plan to get a COVID-19 booster shot this season.

Overall, 52% of Marylanders surveyed said they planned to get the updated vaccine compared to 42% who said they would not.

“Most interestingly, 77% of respondents who said they approve of the government’s handling of the pandemic say they plan on getting a booster shot, compared to 66% who said they disapprove of the government’s handling of the pandemic say they are not going to get a booster shot,” Gonzales noted.

Respondents were also almost evenly split when asked if they would support or oppose a requirement for students, teachers, and staff to wear masks this school year.

Overall, 47% support a hypothetical mask mandate compared to 48% who oppose.

Democrats, at 64%, were overwhelmingly in favor of a mask requirement while eight in 10 Republicans and nearly six in 10 independents opposed a mandate.

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