4 years ago
Former US Vice President Joe Biden held a lead over President Donald Trump among potential voters nationally, according to two polls conducted in the past few days. In a poll by the Washington Post and ABC News, Biden had a 10 percentage point advantage over Trump. Biden’s lead was eight points in another survey conducted by the New York Times and Siena College.
In the Washington Post poll, Biden and running mate Kamala Harris had 54% support among likely voters compared with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence at 44%. Among registered voters, Biden had a 53% to 43% lead. The margin is statistically unchanged from the 12-point gap in the Washington Post and ABC’s August survey, which was taken before both parties held their conventions.
Biden is ahead of Trump by 65% to 34% among the women surveyed, while 55% of men polled supported Trump compared with 42% for Biden, according to the report. The poll was conducted by telephone Monday through Thursday among a random national sample of 1,008 US adults. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
In the New York Times poll, the former vice president was leading Trump 49% to 41% among likely voters. Women favored Biden by 53% to 37%, while the candidates were tied among men, both at 45%.
A total of 950 likely voters were polled between Tuesday and Thursday for the New York Times/Siena College poll, which had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, the report said.
Both surveys were conducted after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg but before Trump’s nomination of federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Saturday. Biden led Trump by eight points on the question of who was more trusted to handle the next appointment to the Supreme Court, according to Washington Post and ABC.
The same question had Biden leading over Trump by 50% to 43% in the New York Times/Siena poll, with 56% thinking the next justice should be appointed by the winner of the upcoming election.
