Only 56% of Biden Voters Say They Were Voting FOR Biden

Looking back at the presidential election, Trump voters overwhelmingly say they voted for the president, while a sizable number of Biden supporters admit they were voting against Trump rather than for the former vice president.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 49% of Likely U.S. Voters say they voted for Democrat Joe Biden. Forty-five percent (45%) opted for the president instead, while four percent (4%) chose some other candidate. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Among Trump voters, 90% say they voted for the president, while just eight percent (8%) say they were voting against Biden.

But among Biden voters, only 56% say they were voting for Biden. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of these voters say they were voting against Trump, while a surprisingly high 15% are not sure.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted November 5 and 8, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Trump’s job performance was the most important issue for Biden voters, closely followed by the coronavirus. For Trump voters, the economy came first and then how the president did his job.

Overwhelming majorities of Trump voters in nearly every demographic category voted for the president’s reelection. But among Biden voters, there was far less enthusiastic support for Biden in most of these categories.

Even among Democrats who voted for Biden, 24% say their vote was a vote against Trump. By comparison, among Republicans who chose Trump, 94% say their vote was a vote for the president.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of unaffiliated voters who voted for Trump say their vote was for him. But among unaffiliateds who chose Biden instead, 46% say they were voting for the Democrat, but nearly as many (41%) were voting against Trump.

Among Biden voters, blacks (72%) were more likely than whites (51%) and other minorities (55%) to say their vote was for the former vice president rather than against Trump.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of all voters approved of the job Trump was doing in October. Fifty percent (50%) disapproved.

Just before the election, 41% said the country was headed in the right direction, the highest finding since March when the coronavirus lockdown kicked in. Now, just 36% feel the country is headed the right way. This number ran in the mid- to upper 20s for much of 2016, President Obama's last full year in office.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.