Poll: It's hard for heavyweight Democrats to overtake Joe Biden if they face off against Trump

A third of U.S. Democrats think President Joe Biden should drop out of the presidential race, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, but no heavyweight Democrat would fare better in a hypothetical matchup with Republican Donald Trump.

The two-day poll, conducted through Tuesday, found that Biden, 81, and Trump, 78, each have the support of 40 percent of registered voters.

This shows that Biden did not lose ground after his first televised presidential debate with Trump last week.

Of the heavyweight Democrats surveyed in the Reuters/Ipsos poll, only Michelle Obama, the wife of former President Barack Obama, fared better than Biden, with 50 percent to Trump's 39 percent in a hypothetical matchup.

Michelle, who launched her best-selling memoir Becoming in 2018, has repeatedly said she has no intention of running for president.

According to the poll, about 32 percent of Democrats said Biden should drop out of the presidential race because he had performed poorly in televised debates and was unable to forcefully counter Trump's attacks, including a slew of false arguments put forward by Trump.

Trump faces some challenges of his own, and while the criminal case against him for allegedly trying to overturn his 2020 loss has stalled, neither Trump nor Biden can afford to lose a large base of support in a close matchup.

Democratic voters have long had misgivings about Biden seeking re-election. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in January found that 49 percent of Democrats believe Biden should not run again in 2024.

But polls also show that Democrats who might succeed Biden would do about as well or worse in a hypothetical matchup.

Vice President Harris, for example, trails Trump by one percentage point in the poll, 42% to 43%, within the margin of error. Statistically, Harris's performance is on par with Biden's.

Joe Biden vowed after the first televised debate that he would continue to run for president.