Is Michelle Obama the best candidate the Democrats can run against Trump in November?

Now that Joe Biden has dropped out of the 2024 Election, the news media and voters alike are hunting for the best candidate to run against Donald Trump. Biden has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, but there is another option that might be better: Michelle Obama.

Biden’s debate performance against Donald Trump left many voters calling for a new Democratic nominee for 2024, and a poll from the beginning of July showed there was only one person who could soundly defeat the former president if she was paired against him in November. 

The polling from Reuters and Ipsos discovered that as many as one in three Democrats think Biden should end his re-election campaign following his debate with Trump but the one problem Democrats faces was finding a great candidate. 

Luckily, pollsters had the smarts to test a few names against 1,070 Americans to see if any of the more prominent personalities in the Democratic Party stood a chance against Trump in November, and one person stood well above the rest. 

Michelle Obama—the wife of former two-term president Barack Obama—would soundly defeat Donald Trump in a bout between the two for the Oval Office. Obama would beat Trump with an 11-point lead over the former president. 

Vice President Harris, one of the other major female names offered up by the poll, didn’t perform nearly as well as Obama did against Trump. Harris would lose to Trump in a hypothetical matchup between the two by a single percentage point. 

“Harris has stepped out of Biden's shadow in recent months, becoming a key voice in the administration for abortion rights,” Reuters reported, adding that its poll showed the Vice President was polling more favorably than Biden with Democrats by 4 points. 

Another interesting finding from the poll was that 18% of Democrats thought that Biden would be more appealing as a candidate if he replaced Harris as his running mate but an overwhelming majority of respondents (81%) disagreed or weren’t sure. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom was also offered up as a potential candidate who could run against Trump in November but the Democratic Party’s rising star performed worse than Harris, trailing the former president 39% to 42% among poll respondents. 

Several other Democratic personalities were brought up in the polling but many of the names were unknown to the respondents. For example, 70% of people indicated that they had never heard of one option, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. 

Trump would beat Beshear in a head-to-head matchup in November, which was an issue that every single other candidate tested suffered except for Michelle Obama. 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer would lose to Trump, who netted 41% of support to Whitmer’s 36%, and Illinois J.B. Pritzker performed even more poorly against Trump, who was able to etch out 40% support among respondents compared to Pritzker’s 34%. 

The results of the survey were rather worrying considering the growing calls from media, voters, and other Democrats that suggested it may be time for Biden to end his re-election bid so the party can find another candidate to run against Trump, which is exactly what happened after weeks of headlines and public worry. 

Biden’s performance in the debate had a major effect on Americans. Polling at the time from CNN showed Trump held a major lead in a head-to-head matchup. This was quite worrying for many onlookers.  

Biden was found to be trailing Trump by 6 points with the former president snatching up 49% of support among Americans while Biden captured 43%. The results were identical to findings CNN’s pollsters made in April 2024. So any lead Biden earned in that time was gone.

CNN also found that Vice President Harris would also probably lose against Trump in a head-to-head matchup in November. Trump led Harris by 2 points with 47% support among CNN’s respondents while Harris captured 45% 

However, pollsters discovered that 75% of registered voters thought the Democrats would have a better chance of winning with someone other than Biden, and tested Newsom, Whitmer, and Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg. But all lost to Trump. 

Obama was not tested by CNN, but even if she were, it is unlikely that Michelle would run since as recently as March 2024 her communications director stated she “has expressed several times over the years, that she will not be running for president.” according to NBC News, adding that she supported Biden and Harris’ reelect campaign. 

In the unlikely event that Obama does somehow end up facing off against Trump in November, her candidacy won't be a threat to the former president, or at least that is what Trump has said during an interview on the Fox News program 'Jesse Watters Primetime' according to Newsweek.

"[The Democrats are] gonna cook up something at the [Democratic] convention. They might throw Gretchen Whitmer at you, they might throw Gavin Newsom at you, they might throw Michelle Obama at you," Watters questioned Trump during an interview set to air July 22nd, but the former president's response showed he wasn't worried.

"I wouldn't be worried about any of them. Look, they have bad policies—forget about the people. They have an open-border policy, they have a high-tax policy, they have a bad military policy. The whole world is going woke—their world is going woke," Trump responded.