Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are both comfortably ahead of Donald Trump in a new national poll.
The poll, released on Friday by The Economist and YouGov , found that both Democratic challengers are ahead of the Republican president and outside of the poll’s margin of error. It found that both Biden and Sanders had the support of 48 percent of voters, while Trump earned the backing of 41 percent in each of the separate polls.
The poll found that nearly all voters had made up their mind on one side or the other, with just 5 percent saying they remained undecided between Biden and the president and another 2 percent saying they were not planning to vote in November. In the polling of Sanders against Trump, 6 percent said they were undecided while 2 percent said they would not vote.
As The Hill noted, Biden has a wide lead over Sanders in the Democratic primary, turning around an early deficit with a big win in South Carolina that has propelled him to victories in a string of key states, including Texas, Michigan, and Florida. Sanders now faces a significant deficit in pledged delegates with an unfavorable election map ahead. There were reports this week that Sanders is in the stages of exploring an exit from the race.
It was not clear yet how Trump’s handling of the coronavirus could affect national surveys. The poll from The Economist and YouGov was conducted between March 15 and March 17, as the virus was spreading rapidly across the United States. After taking some initial criticism for statements seemingly downplaying the severity of the virus and predicting that all cases in the U.S. would clear up in a matter of a few days, Trump has since earned more praise for his handling of the crisis.
As The Inquisitr reported, a new poll found that a majority of Americans now approved of the way Trump was handling the coronavirus.
Still, the president has struggled in polls against Biden, who appears a lock to win the Democratic Party’s nomination. As the poll tracking website Real Clear Politics showed, Biden led Trump by an average of 7.4 points in an aggregate of all national polling.
Polling over the course of the campaign has also shown that Biden leads Trump in a number of key swing states, including Florida, which the president won in 2016. The former vice president also performed well against Trump in the key states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.
