Poll: Biden up 7 in pivotal Pennsylvania
WASHINGTON — With less than two weeks until the Nov. 3 election, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a new USA Today/suffolk University poll.
Nearly half (49%) of likely Pennsylvania voters said they support Biden, while 42% said they support Trump, the poll released Wednesday found.
“I feel safe with Joe Biden, it’s like having your dad watching over,” said Lisa Laws, 61, who answered the poll and lives in Strafford. “I think he can get this country back on track because we’ve got to change.”
Laws, who is Black, said she has seen divisiveness grow under the Trump administration and feels that the country has gone backwards. Laws said she was the first Black person at her elementary school, and eventually went on to be the first Black person and first woman paralegal at her law firm.
“It’s things like that that I see going backwards, not forward,” she said. “This president is turning it on.”
Trump won the Keystone State against Democrat Hillary Clinton by less than one percentage point in 2016. Pennsylvania has long been a swing state in presidential elections, choosing 20 of the last 25 presidents.
David Black, 61, of Chalfont, said that he supports the president because “he has done everything he says, whether you like it or you don’t like it.”
“... And he’s for America first, and I like that,” said Black, who responded to the poll and voted for Trump in 2016.
While the majority of likely voters (57%) said the country is on the wrong track, 51% also said they are better off than they were four years ago. About one-third (32%) said the country is on the right track. And 30% said they are worse off than they were four years ago.
Who is seen more favorably?
Biden is also seen more favorably than Trump by likely Pennsylvania voters.
Forty-nine percent have a favorable view of Biden, while 44% have an unfavorable view. Trump is underwater with his favorable-unfavorable numbers, with more likely voters (52%) having an unfavorable view of him than those who have a favorable view (42%).
Autumn Sonnet, 35, of Pittsburgh, said while Biden was not her first choice, “now it seems like it’s imperative that he is elected.”
“I think Donald Trump is a dangerous man,” Sonnet said, adding that COVID-19, systemic racism and the economy have been some of her top concerns due to the Trump presidency.
The USA Today/suffolk Poll surveyed a total of 500 likely voters via cellphone and landlines Oct. 15-19. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
When asked what their top issue in the election was, 26% of likely voters said bringing the country together, which led all other issues.