Supporters of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are sharply divided along all sorts of lines, including the sources they rely on to get their news, new information. NBC News survey shows.
Biden is the clear choice among voters who consume newspaper and national network news, while Trump does best among voters who don’t follow political news at all.
The stark differences help highlight the strategies used by both candidates as they seek another term in the White House and shed light on why the presidential race appears relatively stable.
The survey looked at various forms of traditional media (newspapers, national network news and cable news) as well as digital media (social media, digital websites and YouTube/Google). 54% of registered voters described themselves as primarily traditional news consumers, while 40% described themselves as digital media consumers.
Biden has an 11-point lead among traditional news consumers in the head-to-head presidential test, with 52% support among that group, compared to Trump’s 41%. But it’s mostly a bounce ball among digital media consumers, with Trump at 47% and Biden at 44%.
And Trump has a substantial lead among those who don’t follow political news — 53% support him, compared to 27% for Biden.
“It’s almost comical. “If you’re one of the rest of the Americans who say they read the newspaper for news, you’re voting for Biden by 49 points,” said Republican Bill McInturff, who conducted the poll with Democrat Jeff Horwitt.
The trends also apply to other questions in the survey. There is a significant difference in traditional news consumers’ views of Biden, while digital news consumers are generally more in line with registered voters.
More traditional news consumers have a favorable opinion of Biden (48%) compared to an unfavorable one (44%). Among mostly digital news consumers, 35% view Biden favorably and 54% unfavorably. Vice President Kamala Harris’ favorable ratings show a similar split, while Trump is viewed similarly by news consumers of both stripes.
Although the sample size is small, those who do not follow political news feel more positively about Trump and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and more negatively about Biden.
Trump’s leadership among non-political news watchers came to Horwitt’s attention during Trump’s trial over allegations that he paid hush money to suppress news of an alleged affair during the height of the 2016 presidential campaign and in other cases where he was in legal jeopardy. that consistently informs.
“These are generally informed voters who know who they’re supporting and don’t act,” Horwitt said.
“That’s why it is difficult to change this race based on real news. They don’t see it and they don’t care,” he continued.
Third-party candidates also do well with this segment of the electorate — a quarter of the 15% who say they don’t follow political news choose one of the other candidates in a five-way poll, including Kennedy, Jill Stein and Cornell. West. Third-party advocates also organize similar sharing of those who say they get their news mostly from social media and websites.
But voting behavior among these groups suggests that Biden’s stronger showing with traditional media consumers puts him ahead with a more reliable voting bloc.
Of those polled that can be matched to the voter file, 59% of those who voted in both 2020 and 2022 primarily use traditional media, 40% use digital media, and only 9% do not follow political news. (Percentages exceed 100% because some people chose media platforms across multiple categories.)
Fewer voters say they don’t watch political news: 19% of those who voted in the last presidential election, not in 2022, and 27% of those who voted in neither of the last two elections said they didn’t. follow political news.
The NBC News poll of 1,000 registered voters nationwide — 891 of whom were contacted by cellphone — was conducted April 12-16 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.