President Joe Biden is heading into the 2024 presidential contest on firmer footing than a year ago, with his approval rating inching upwards and once-doubtful Democrats falling into line behind his re-election bid, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

Biden appears to have escaped the political danger zone he resided in last year when nearly two-thirds of his party wanted a different nominee. Now, Democrats have broadly accepted him as their standard-bearer, even if half would prefer someone else.

Still, warning signs abound for the President: Despite his improved standing and a friendlier national environment, Biden remains broadly unpopular among a voting public that is pessimistic about the country’s future, and his approval rating is a mere 39 per cent.

Perhaps most worryingly for Democrats, the poll found Biden in a neck-and-neck race with former President Donald J. Trump, who held a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters even as he faces two criminal indictments and more potential charges on the horizon. Biden and Trump were tied at 43 per cent apiece in a hypothetical rematch in 2024, according to the poll.

Biden has been buoyed by voters’ feelings of fear and distaste towards Trump. Well over a year before the election, 16 per cent of those polled had unfavourable views of both Biden and Trump, a segment with which Biden had a narrow lead.

“Donald Trump is not a Republican, he’s a criminal,” said John Wittman, 42, a heating and air conditioning contractor from Phoenix. A Republican, he said that even though he believed Biden’s economic stewardship had hurt the country, “I will vote for anyone on the planet that seems halfway capable of doing the job, including Joe Biden, over Donald Trump.”

To borrow an old political cliché, the poll shows that Biden’s support among Democrats is a mile wide and an inch deep. About 30 per cent of voters who said they planned to vote for Biden in November 2024 said they hoped Democrats would nominate someone else. Just 20 per cent of Democrats said they would be enthusiastic if Biden were the party’s 2024 presidential nominee; another 51 per cent said they would be satisfied but not enthusiastic.

A higher share of Democrats, 26 per cent, expressed enthusiasm for the notion of Vice-President Kamala Harris as the nominee in 2024. Biden had the backing of 64 per cent of Democrats who planned to take part in the primary, an indicator of soft support for an incumbent President.