Dem
51
GOP
49
As a reminder, we're doing two tracking polls now, one for the presidency and one for the Senate. Today, it's the presidential poll. Here's how readers have had the two presidential races thus far:
| Democratic Candidate | Jan. Rank | Feb. Rank | May Rank |
| Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Vice President Kamala Harris | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| President Joe Biden | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Sen. Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) | 6 | 6 | 7 |
| Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) | 9 | N/R | 8 |
| Lawyer and activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) | N/R | 9 | 10 |
| Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) | 10 | N/R | N/R |
| Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) | 8 | 8 | N/R |
| Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) | N/R | 10 | N/R |
| Author and speaker Marianne Williamson | N/R | N/R | N/R |
| Republican Candidate | Jan. Rank | Feb. Rank | May Rank |
| Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Former president Donald Trump | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) | 8 | 10 | 3 |
| Former Fox entertainer Tucker Carlson | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) | N/R | 3 | 5 |
| Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| Former vice president Mike Pence | 5 | 8 | 7 |
| Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley | N/R | 7 | 8 |
| Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) | N/R | N/R | 10 |
| Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan | 7 | 9 | N/R |
| Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) | 9 | N/R | N/R |
| Former representative Liz Cheney | 10 | N/R | N/R |
| Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy | N/R | N/R | N/R |
| Radio entertainer Larry Elder | N/R | N/R | N/R |
In case you're wondering, there are some readers who suspect Biden won't run in 2024, either due to having bowed out or having died. So, they are not ranking him at all. In a situation where Gavin Newsom appears on every ballot, but Biden only appears on 95% of ballots, it's enough to push Newsom into the #1 slot.
For now, we're going to keep all of the candidates who might plausibly be considered. However, in the actual voting form, we'll put an asterisk next to declared candidates. And sometime soon, we'll probably drop the non-candidates from the poll.
Also, we build the ballot each month in the same manner that is used for actual elections, namely a random drawing. Is it an omen that on the day he made his presidential bid official, Mike Pence ended up in the last slot on the ballot?
Moving along, recall that we added a new question last month, namely "Which party's candidate will win the White House in November 2024?" That one came out rather lopsided; 96.6% for the Democrats and 3.3% for the Republicans, with "Libertarians" and "Other Third Party" each getting one vote (out of well over 2,000 cast). Good to have you as readers, Gary Johnson and Cornel West! We'll see how that ebbs or flows over the next year and a half.
We also asked "If Joe Biden were to switch VPs, who would be the shrewdest alternative to Kamala Harris?" Here are the Top 10 finishers:
We also allowed write-in would-be VPs, and got some very interesting answers. Far and away the most popular was Michelle Obama, but she would never go for it, which is we did not include her in the first place. Among the other interesting answers were Hillary Clinton, CBS News journalist Gayle King, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Liz Cheney, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Keanu Reeves and Batman. Unfortunately, unresolved questions about the exact nature of the Dark Knight's relationship with Robin probably make him impractical from a political standpoint, though we do understand Bruce Wayne is interested in the job.
There was also a reader who had the following proposal: "Donald 'Skip' Trump of Falls Church, VA. Lower-informed Republican voters would either love that Donald Trump was on the ballot twice (guaranteed to win), or they would stay home because he sold out to "Sleepy Joe" just to get back to D.C." There was also a reader who proposed Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), and who explained the pick "has nothing to do with her qualities as a potential VP; I just think it would be a shrewd way to avoid splitting the Arizona U.S. Senate vote."
The question of the month for this month will be: "Who was the most authentic president in U.S. history?" We write about phony politicians above, so we thought we might as well poll the opposite. Which president's public persona was closest to who they really were?
Cast your ballots here! (Z)