A majority of Democratic voters polled recently said Barack Obama was a better president than George Washington, Monmouth University reported Tuesday.

Conducted from Dec. 4-8, the survey involved asking more than 900 respondents to answer: “Who was a better president: George Washington or Barack Obama?”

Among all registered voters, 58% named Washington as the better president compared to 33% who picked Mr. Obama.

Most respondents identified as Democrats picked President Trump’s predecessor over the Founding Father, however. Among all Democrats, 29% said Washington and 63% said Mr. Obama.

Monmouth said the survey question was “inspired” by a recent Economist/YouGov Poll that similarly asked respondents to compare Mr. Trump to several fellow Republican presidents who served before him. Poised to pick between Mr. Trump and Abraham Lincoln, 53% of Republicans surveyed named the current president as the better of the two, that poll found.

“There is a combination of factors at work when you ask a question like this. Democrats may be more likely than Republicans to be influenced by recency bias, valuing what they are familiar with over historical opinion,” said Patrick Murray, director Monmouth University Polling Institute.

“It’s a fun question to ask, but I’m not sure what it means,” Mr. Murray added.

A total of 384 voters surveyed by Monmouth identified as Democrat or Democratic-leaning, and their results have a margin of error of plus or minute 5.0 percentage points, according to the pollster.

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