Americans didn't think too highly of their presidential hopefuls in 2023

It isn't easy to determine what the average American voter thinks about the massive slate of potential politicians they'll likely have to choose from in a presidential election. Yet pollsters have made taking the pulse of the nation a lot less difficult. So, what did voters think of their 2024 choices?

One of the best attempts to determine what Americans thought about the choices available for 2024 was a poll published in June 2023 by JL Partners and The Daily Mail. It revealed that voters had a lot of harsh criticisms when it came to the country's potential candidates.

However, the polling data wasn't like other information you might have seen since the pollster asked respondents to describe each of the possible 2024 candidates using only one word. As you can imagine, things turned a bit nasty, and the poll clarified a few things.

First, Americans didn't really like the potential presidential candidates they will probably have to choose from in 2024, and there was no better example of how much they hated their options than the words they used to describe them—none of which were nice. 

For example, independents likely to vote in the next general election told pollsters that the probable Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, was old, incompetent, and corrupt. At the same time, several other unflattering words like senile, failure, and dementia graced Biden’s name. 

Democratic voters agreed with independents, and the word most associated among the current president’s most likely supporters was “old.” But at least some thought Biden was steady, competent, and effective—terms that contrast significantly with all voters' answers.

When looking at how all voters responded, most thought that Biden was old and incompetent—two words that could have proven to be significant problems for Biden when paired against his Republican and third-party opponents. 

Biden's advanced age has continued to be a significant issue for him since JL Partners and the Daily Mail conducted their polling. For example, in September, CNN found that 77% of Americans thought Biden was too old for a second term, including 69% of Democrats surveyed.

Ron DeSantis had some of the most extreme words associated with his presidential bid. Most voters associated the words fascist, unsure, and racist with the Florida governor, which means DeSantis’s generally unpopular policies might be taking their toll on him. 

Other words like evil, bigot, and leader do make an appearance. But it appears as if most Republican respondents had a favorable view of DeSantis while independent voters and Democrats had the most negative word associations. 

Words associated with Donald Trump were a lot less outlandish and reflected the reality the former president finds himself in after months of sounding off about his indictments have turned him into a figure beloved by his supporters and loathed by his opponents. 

The word most associated with Trump among all poll respondents was criminal, which shouldn’t be a big surprise. Dangerous, disgusting, and a**hole were also associated among all voters but there were some who saw the former president in a positive light.

Republicans associated words like leader and patriot with the former president. However, independents will likely win Trump the election in 2024 if he nets the GOP nomination, and independent voters described Trump as criminal, crazy, narcissistic, and disgusting. 

Voters really didn’t like Chris Christie all that much and associated words like unknown, unsure, and fat—which were really harsh ways to describe the man.

Unfortunately, JL PArtners and The Daily Mail didn't collect word information on the many other polarizing people running to win the Republican presidential nomination for 2024 like Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy. However, it did gather information on California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

Voters thought Newsom was unknown, unsure, liberal, and an idiot, all which which wouldn't bode well for the governor if he was hoping to toss his hat into the race for president.

“Altogether, the poll results signaled that Americans are largely unsatisfied with the options they have for leadership over the next half decade,” wrote The Independent’s John Bowden—an accurate description of the country’s current political climate. 

JL Partner’s performed their poll on behalf of The Daily Mail spoke with 1000 individuals between June 12th and 15th who said they were likely to vote in the general election.