Trump’s crime message not breaking through

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump’s support in the U.S. suburbs erodes amid concerns about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, he has returned to a familiar campaign theme: trying to scare voters away from backing Democrat Joe Biden in November.

From deploying federal agents to confront protesters in cities such as Portland, Oregon, to releasing ads portraying a lawless and dangerous America under a Biden presidency, Trump has positioned himself as the candidate who will keep the country safe.

But Reuters/Ipsos polling this month shows white suburban Americans are far more worried about the economy and health care than crime, a sign that Trump’s strategy could be at odds with the priorities of the critical voting bloc he narrowly won in 2016 and must win back to secure a second term.

Asked what is “the most important problem facing the United States today,” 21 per cent said the economy and 21 per cent said health care. Only six per cent said crime, according to the July 15-21 national opinion poll, which included 1,603 U.S. adults who identified as white and living in the suburbs.

But concern about COVID19 and Trump’s management of it ran deep.

Among white Americans in the suburbs, 81 per cent said they were personally concerned about the spread of the virus. Forty-one percent of those suburban white Americans approved of the way Trump has handled the coronavirus, down 12 points from a similar poll that ran in March.

While 42 per cent of all Americans thought Biden would be better at dealing with COVID-19 compared with 33 per cent who said Trump was better, white suburban Americans were more closely split over which candidate was better equipped to lead the nation out of the crisis, with 40 per cent saying Trump and 38 per cent saying Biden.

The data suggests Trump, who trails Biden in national polls, could shore up his support in the suburbs and improve his chances of winning the Nov. 3 election with stronger leadership on the health and economic crises rather than doubling down on assertions that the country would be less safe with Biden in the White House.

“His law-and-order message seems more geared towards resuscitating his base than winning over swing suburbanites,” said Dave Wasserman, a non-partisan analyst with the Cook Political Report. “There is no way Trump can win the election unless he turns around his numbers on the handling of COVID.”

The Republican president’s advisers insist his tough-oncrime message resonates with suburban voters after months of protests over racial injustice and police brutality against Black Americans and calls from progressives to “defund” the police.

“The violence, the lawlessness, is sickening. This is what Joe Biden and the Democrats stand for,” said Rick Gorka, a senior member of the Republican National Committee and part of Trump’s re-election campaign. “Our data shows this is an extremely moving issue, especially with suburban voters and those that are undecided.”