President Biden has made preserving and protecting American democracy a central issue in his campaign for re-election. He regularly offers himself as democracy’s true champion and argues that electing his opponent, Donald Trump, would mean the end of democracy in this country.

A Washington Post-George Mason University poll released this week contains good news and bad news for the Biden campaign.

First, it shows that Biden has made substantial progress in convincing voters that democracy is indeed on the ballot. The survey of voters in swing states found that 61% say “threats to democracy” are extremely important to them.

Unfortunately for Biden, this same poll shows he is failing to persuade people that voting for him is the best way to preserve and/or improve democracy. 44% of surveyed voters in those states say that they believe Trump is best equipped to deal with threats to democracy, compared with only 33% who favor Biden to do so.

The news gets worse for Biden if we focus just on “undecided” voters. Among that group, 38% trust Trump as the preserver of democracy. Only 29% trust Biden on the democracy issue.