Poll Shows Biden Doing Better when 3rd Party Candidates Included

A new NBC poll shows that when only Biden and Trump are the candidates in a 2024 matchup, Trump leads by 2 points: 46 to 44. But if the race would include Biden, Trump, RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornell West, the poll shows Biden leading by 2 points over Trump: 39 to 37, with the others at 13, 3, and 2 respectively.

This is an interesting development. The Biden campaign has been active in speaking out against RFK Jr and Trump has encouraged Democrats to vote for him. But polls like this new one from NBC have to make both the Biden and Trump campaigns take pause as to how they should be viewing the third party candidates. If the approach of either of the frontrunners is wrong in how they deal with these other contenders, they may do unwanted damage to their own chances in the election.

For more information, see these two stories:

• RFK Jr. candidacy hurts Trump more than Biden, NBC News poll finds

• Trump says 'I'd vote for RFK Jr.' if he was a Democrat: 'Better man than Joe Biden'