With Super Tuesday just a few weeks away, a new poll shows that voters are much more concerned about President Joe Biden's stamina than former President Donald Trump's, despite the two candidates being close in age.
Released Thursday, the Monmouth University poll found that 32% of those surveyed are at least "somewhat confident" that Biden, 81, has the mental and physical stamina for another four-year White House term. More than half, or 51%, of those polled said the same about Trump, the 77-year-old likely GOP nominee.
Voters and people on both sides of the aisle have expressed increasing concern at the advanced ages of both major party candidates, while Biden and Trump have insisted they are fit to hold office.
The latest poll results reveal a shift in voter confidence from the first time the two men squared off in 2020. At that time, Biden held a 7-point advantage over Trump, with 52% of voters confident in him and 45% confident in Trump.
Among voters age 70 and older, 45% said they were at least somewhat confident in Biden's stamina and 43% said the same about Trump's stamina.
"It's interesting that voters in the same age bracket as both candidates don't see much of a difference in terms of their stamina," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, wrote in the poll's analysis. "But younger voters clearly have different perceptions of the two."
Fifty-two percent of voters under 70 expressed confidence in Trump's stamina, compared to 30% who said the same thing about Biden.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, 52, has frequently attacked Biden and Trump for their age and launched a series of "Grumpy Old Men" ads earlier this month targeting the Democrat incumbent and Republican front-runner.
The survey also follows the release of special counsel Robert Hur's damaging report addressing Biden's mishandling of classified documents, in which he called the president a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Large shares of voters said they think it's possible that one or both party front-runners could be replaced before the November general election. Forty-eight percent said it's possible that Biden would be replaced on the ballot, while 32% said Trump could be replaced by the GOP.
Respondents cited Biden's health as the top factor in his possible replacement, while Trump's legal woes were the reason many felt he could be pushed off the ticket.
The poll was conducted Feb. 8-12 and surveyed 902 adults. The margin of error is 4.3 percentage points.