Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg would not beat Trump in 2020 election race, new poll says

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg continues his national tour of every state in the US, rumours have continued to swirl over the possibility that he could one day run for president, despite him saying he has no plans to do so. A new poll from Democratic firm PublicPolicyPolling released on Tuesday (18 July) has pitted the tech executive against President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2020 election race.

According to the survey of 836 registered American voters that was taken between 14 and 17 July, Zuckerberg would not beat President Trump in a theoretical race to the White House with both tied at 40% each. The remaining 20% respondents were unsure.

Public Policy Polling noted that Zuckerberg is "not a particularly well-known figure nationally" with 47% of respondents saying they have no opinion about him. While 24% of respondents held positive views of Zuckerberg, 29% had negative views about the Facebook billionaire.

The poll also pitted President Trump in a number of other head-to-head contests against notable Democrats including former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Kamala Harris among others.

According to the poll, Biden would beat Trump 54 to 39 while Sanders would best Trump 52 to 39 in theoretical races. Democratic Senator Warren from New Jersey would beat Trump 49 to 42 while Senator Harris from California would also narrowly edge Trump 41 to 42.

The poll has a margin in error of 3.4 percentage points.

Earlier this year, Zuckerberg announced his "personal challenge" for 2017 to meet and talk to people in all 50 states in America by the end of the year. However, he has previously denied rumours that he was planning to run for political office, saying he was focusing on "building our community at Facebook" and working on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Over the weekend, Zuckerberg visited Glacier National Park in Montana with some National Park Service Rangers as well as the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and its capital in Browning, Montana.

"The reservation is a microcosm of how the pillars of a fair government, strong economy, and healthy community are all connected", Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "A lot of what I saw comes back to the basic idea of freedom. If people have the freedom to do what they want — whether that's taking a chance on a new idea or building their community — the inherent creativity and goodness in people will help different parts of society flourish."