Could verdict in Trump criminal trial upend the presidential election?

With former President Trump's criminal trial now in the hands of the jury, a pending verdict in the historic case could have serious consequences in the 2024 election between the former president and President Biden.

Trump currently holds a slight edge both in national polling and in public opinion surveys in most of the crucial battleground states that will likely decide their rematch.

However, Trump faces the possibility of being convicted on some or all of the nearly three-dozen state felony charges he faces in his trial in New York City, which is the first in the nation's history for a former or current president. There is also the prospect of a hung jury or an acquittal.

Could any of these legal outcomes alter the current trajectory in the White House race?

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Veteran pollster Chris Anderson, a member of the Fox News Election Decision Team and the Democratic partner on the Fox News Poll, said that he did not think "a guilty verdict would fundamentally change the landscape of the race."

Daron Shaw, a politics professor and chair at the University of Texas who also serves as a member of the Fox News Decision Team and the Republican partner on the Fox News Poll, noted that "prior to 2020, no one would have thought that a candidate could survive a criminal conviction."

"But times and circumstances have evolved. And while the specific findings of the jury could matter, I think there is a sense that a conviction in this case would not appreciably change the dynamics of the race," Shaw emphasized.

Both pointed to the fact that "attitudes are so set in concrete" regarding both the former Republican president and his Democratic successor in the White House.

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