Poll Shows Trump and Biden Running Close

President's support for November lags approval rating
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 29, 2020 9:50 AM CDT
Poll Shows Trump and Biden Running Close
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally March 7 in Kansas City, Mo. \   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

With his approval rating at a high point, President Trump is now running nearly even with Vice President Joe Biden among voters in a new poll. As the pandemic has worsened, the president has erased most of last month's 7-point gap between the two, the Washington Post reports. Biden's lead among registered voters is 49% to 47%, which is within the margin of error. Among adults overall, 50% back Biden and 44% support Trump. Biden's only rival left for the Democratic nomination appears to be out of the picture. The big lead that Sen. Bernie Sanders had in February has nearly flipped, and Biden leads him 55% to 39% among Democrats and independents who lean that way. The Post-ABC News poll, taken last week, reports a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Other polls in the past week also show Trump's support for the November election running lower than his 48% approval rating, Politico points out. A Monmouth University poll has Biden at 48% and Trump at 45%. Fox News found a bigger lead for Biden, 49% to 40%. All three polls show support for Trump's handling of the pandemic to be higher than his overall approval rating; the Post-ABC poll found voters split about evenly between when asked whether they trust Trump or Biden more to deal with outbreak. Still, the polls indicate less support for a second term. The biggest difference was in their supporters' fervor. The Post-ABC poll found 55% of the registered voters backing Trump were very enthusiastic about it, while 32% were less so. Just 28% backing Biden expressed very enthusiastic support, with 45% saying they were somewhat less enthusiastic. (More Election 2020 stories.)

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