SUPPORT CRUMBLES AFTER COVID DIAGNOSIS
Catching coronavirus has been disastrous for President Trump’s re-election hopes, with support for the president plummeting since news of the infection broke, allowing Democratic nominee Joe Biden to open a commanding double-digit lead, a new Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald poll shows.
The nationwide poll reveals that instead of a sympathy factor for Trump, there’s been a stunning drop in the Republican president’s poll numbers since he revealed his diagnosis
last Friday.
In two days of polling before Trump got COVID, the president trailed Biden by just a 46%- 41% margin. In the three days of polling after the coronavirus diagnosis, Biden held a 55%-34% lead. That means Biden’s lead grew by a whopping 16 points from pre- COVID to post- COVID.
Among all the 1,003 registered, likely voters in the nationwide Franklin Pierce-Herald poll, Biden now holds a 51%-37% lead over Trump less than a month before Election Day. Three percent support a third party candidate while 8% say they are still undecided.
Biden is holding a 12-point lead among independent voters — a key to the election in battleground states. The former vice president also holds a massive 58%-31% lead among women voters. Male voters are evenly split between Trump and Biden, the poll shows.
The poll, conducted by Global Marketing Research Services for Franklin Pierce and the Herald, was taken from Sept. 30 through Oct. 4 and has a margin of error of 3.1%. The survey included mobile phones, landlines and online.
The poll shows in stark numbers just how much COVID-19 has impacted the election. Just three in 10 voters said they plan to vote in person on Nov. 3, while 43% said they planned to mail ballots in or vote by absentee ballot. One quarter of voters said they plan to vote early in person.
The poll also showed that COVID-19 is far and away the top issue in the campaign. One third of all likely voters cite the coronavirus as the most important issue to them, while 19% went with jobs and the economy and 10% cited social justice and racial equality.
Just 52% of voters say they are “very confident” that their vote for president will be “counted and treated accurately.” Thirty percent say they are only “somewhat confident” and 16% say they aren’t confident their votes will be counted accurately.
Voters are roughly split on whether the U. S. Senate should vote on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Forty-seven percent of voters say the Senate should not take up Barrett’s nomination, while 41% say the Senate should vote on it.
The poll also shows very strong support for the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Six in 10 voters believe the Supreme Court should uphold the decision, while just 19% say it should be overturned.
The Franklin Pierce-Herald poll reveals widespread angst about the future of the nation. A third of voters said they were “very worried” about the future, 27% said they were “somewhat worried” and just 19% described themselves as “very hopeful” about the future.
Vice President Mike Pence fares a little better in the Franklin Pierce-Herald poll than Trump, with 40% of likely voters saying they believe he’s more ready to assume the presidency if needed, compared to 45% who say Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is more ready to take over the White House.
Among all the 1,003 voters in the poll, 900 said they were very or somewhat likely to vote, while 43 respondents said they had already voted.