President Joe Biden is leading former President Donald Trump by six points among registered voters in a hypothetical 2024 presidential rematch, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll released on Wednesday.

The survey, conducted September 2 to 6 with the participation of more than 1,600 adults, found that if the next presidential election “were held today,” 48 percent of registered voters would select Biden, while 42 percent would choose Trump.

“Biden’s new 6-point lead is 3 points larger than his edge in the previous Yahoo News/YouGov survey from late August (Biden 45%, Trump 42%) and 4 points better than his average lead across all Yahoo News/YouGov surveys conducted between April and July (Biden 44%, Trump 42%),” Yahoo News wrote. “The last time Biden led Trump in a Yahoo News/YouGov poll by 6 percentage points or more among registered voters was in March 2022 (Biden 47% to Trump 39%).”

Meanwhile, more Democrats are now saying that America is “generally headed in the right direction” (48 percent) than “off on the wrong track” (38 percent). Just a month before, those figures were reversed.

“As a result, Biden has strengthened his standing for 2024, which had been looking unusually weak for an incumbent,” the news outlet wrote. “Whereas in early August, Democrats and independents who lean Democratic preferred ‘someone else’ over Biden as the Democratic nominee by a 55% to 27% margin, the number who now say they prefer Biden is up 8 points, to 35%, and the number who say they prefer someone else is down 13 points, to 42%.”

Despite being the target of a high-profile FBI search at his Florida estate over classified documents, Trump has seemingly made his own gains in recent weeks. The poll showed that 55 percent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican now prefer Trump over “someone else” for the 2024 Republican nomination. This is up from 54 percent in the previous survey and 47 percent in early August.

However, it appears that Trump isn’t entirely immune to all criticisms regarding his handling of classified documents.

“Less than half of Republicans and Republican leaners now prefer Trump (48%) over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (34%),” Yahoo noted. “A growing number of independents—39%, up 7 points from two weeks ago—believe Trump would be a weaker candidate in 2024 than in 2020.”

Furthermore, 55 percent of respondents said Trump should be barred from being elected again in the future if he is found guilty of “mishandling highly classified documents” or “obstructing” the ongoing investigation by the Justice Department.

Neither Biden nor Trump has formally declared a 2024 White House run, but both have indicated that they will run again.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Finance and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn.

Image: Reuters