Biden leads by double digits as virus takes a toll on the president: Survey

Democrat Joe Biden has a 15 percentage point lead over President Donald Trump and is up by 10 points among likely voters, in a ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday.

Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic remains a key issue for voters. The former vice president had support of 55 per cent among registered voters to Trump’s 40 per cent in the survey, which was conducted July 12-15. In an earlier ABC/Post poll from late May Biden was leading by 10 points.

Among likely voters Biden’s lead was 10 points, 54 per cent to 44 per cent, ABC News reported. Trump’s job approval was at 39 per cent, down from 45 per cent in May. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points among the 845 registered voters polled.

The RealClearPoliltics compilation of recent polls, which was updated to include the ABC/Post survey, shows Biden up 8.8 points. The data point used for the compilation was that of likely voters.

Voters said they trusted Biden to handle the pandemic over Trump by a 20-point margin, 54 per cent to 34 per cent. In March the pair were virtually tied on that issue.

In an early June CNN poll, Biden was leading with 14-points in the suburbs. In the average of all the polls, Biden’s ahead by nearly 20 points with suburban voters. This is a historic margin, if it holds.

The fact that Biden is doing so well in the suburbs shouldn't be a surprise. The suburbs are a bellwether vote of sorts in the current political environment. That is, the suburban vote mirrors the national vote closer than the urban or rural vote.

Biden’s lead in the suburbs is reflective of him doing significantly better than Hillary Clinton. Four years ago, Trump was beating Clinton by a 45 per cent to 35 per cent margin in the ABC/Washington Post poll among suburban voters.

According to data by CNN, the exit poll reveals that no Democrat has won the suburban vote by more than 5 points since at least 1972, when the first exit poll was taken in a presidential election.