Biden builds a lead in six states narrowly won by Trump in 2016
JOE BIDEN is ahead of Donald Trump in all six of the states the US president won by the narrowest margins in 2016, according to new polling shared exclusively with The Daily Telegraph.
The probable Democratic presidential candidate leads in Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan, according to surveys conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies.
The polling found that in these battleground states voters disapproved of how the US president has handled the coronavirus crisis, the issue which will dominate the 2020 campaign.
If the results were replicated on Nov 3, it is likely Mr Biden would be heading to the White House.
The new poll reflects a national survey which showed Mr Biden had opened up a double-digit lead over Mr Trump. The Quinnipiac University poll had Mr Biden on 50 per cent, and Mr Trump on 39 per cent.
But there are also danger signs for Mr Biden, with three quarters of voters in those six key states aware of a historic sexual assault allegation against him which has made headlines in recent weeks.
Some voters also had concerns about Mr Biden’s age when asked about possible reasons for not backing him. He is 77, four years older than Mr Trump, and, if successful, would be the oldest person ever elected to the US presidency.
The Biden campaign will be cheering at the overall shape of the race with less than six months to go, according to the picture painted by this polling. As ever with US elections, the focus lies on the battleground states – the ones which both parties believe they have a chance of winning.
Mr Trump won all six of the states polled in 2016. Four had voted for Barack Obama, Mr Trump’s predecessor, in 2012. But these polls found that Mr Biden has now pulled ahead of Mr Trump in all six states.
Mr Biden was found to lead by two percentage points in Florida and North Carolina, four points in Arizona, eight points in Michigan, nine points in Pennsylvania and 10 points in Wisconsin.
The snapshot comes with America reeling from a coronavirus outbreak that has infected more than 1.5 million people and taken more than 90,000 lives. In each of the six states, more voters disapproved of Mr Trump’s handling of the pandemic than approved.
Mr Biden, who served as Mr Obama’s vice-president for eight years, is all but certain to be crowned the Democratic presidential nominee at the party convention this August.
But in recent weeks Mr Biden has had to address claims by Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer, that he sexually assaulted her in 1993. He has categorically denied the allegation.
The polls offered an indication about each candidate’s strengths. Characteristics which voters often associated with Mr Trump included being a strong leader, knowing how to get things done and standing up for US interests. Characteristics associated with Mr Biden included caring about “people like me”, being able to work with foreign leaders and understanding the problems afflicting America.