Trump’s law-and-order stance hasn’t moved Wisconsin polls
Former Vice President Joe Biden still holds a narrow edge in the key battleground state of Wisconsin as President Donald Trump’s law-andorder message has failed to change the dynamic of the race there, according to a Washington POST-ABC News poll released Wednesday.
Trump has seized on the protests after last month’s police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, denouncing the burning and looting that took place and warning of worse across the country if Biden is elected.
The poll shows Biden at 52 percent to 46 percent for Trump among likely voters and by 50 percent to 46 percent among all registered voters.
Neither gap is significant, with a 4.5-point margin of sampling error applying to each candidate.
The Wisconsin poll is consistent with other recent polls in the state, with the Post’s average showing Biden’s margin at 7 points, narrower than in midsummer but not much different from what it was immediately after the GOP convention.
Recent polls in other battleground states such as Nevada and New Hampshire also show Biden’s lead holding steady.
The president recently visited Wisconsin to highlight his support for law enforcement and to reinforce his message that he’s best suited to tamp down violence — with force, if necessary.
Biden visited the state days later, meeting with the Blake family and calling for unity and healing in the community, though he, too, denounced the violence that followed the shooting.
The poll finds Trump and Biden tied on the question of whom voters in Wisconsin trust more on issues of crime and safety, at 48 percent each.
Marginally more voters say they trust Biden over Trump on discouraging violence at political protests, though the difference isn’t statistically significant.
Meanwhile, Biden holds a clear advantage — 51 percent to 41 percent — on the question of who’s more trusted to provide equal treatment of racial groups.
A bare majority — 51 percent — of Wisconsin voters say they support recent protests, while 44 percent say they oppose them.
Those who support them overwhelmingly support Biden; those opposed back Trump by a smaller but still sizable margin.
Trump won the state by less than a percentage point in 2016, or about 23,000 votes, but through this spring and summer, Biden consistently has led the polls there — though by a smaller margin than in national polls.
The most recent round of surveys in Wisconsin has been highly anticipated, coming after a Republican National Convention that focused heavily on the law-and-order message and in the wake of the Blake shooting and the protests.
The POST-ABC polls in Wisconsin and Minnesota, where Biden holds a broader lead, are the first in a series of surveys examining attitudes of voters in key election battlegrounds, all conducted by professional interviewers through random sampling of cellphones and landlines.