Joe Biden Maintains Double-Digit Lead Over Donald Trump In New Monmouth University Poll

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is for all intents and purposes the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president in 2020, maintains a double-digit lead over incumbent President Donald Trump in the the latest Monmouth University poll.

As Politico reported, the latest polling, released Thursday, showed Biden leading Trump by 12 percentage points, 53 percent to 41 percent among registered voters. When compared to the same polling agency’s results from the previous month, it appears as if Biden’s lead has increased slightly — a month ago, a Monmouth poll had Biden leading by 11 percentage points, 52 percent to 41 percent.

Indeed, since March, Biden’s lead over Trump has been steadily increasing, from a three-point lead at the time to July’s high of 12 points.

The poll also looked at an issue that has been raised on both sides of the aisle about each side’s opponent: their age and mental faculties. Just over half of poll respondents — 52 percent — are at least somewhat confident that Biden is up to the job of president both physically and mentally. Just 45 percent said the same about Trump.

Broken down further among partisan lines, just 47 percent of poll respondents who identified as Democrats said they were very confident that their man was up for the job physically and mentally, while 72 percent of Republicans said the same about Trump.

Another issue about which there is a partisan divide among the voters — and which spelled doom for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and could potentially do so for Trump in 2020 — is the matter of likability.

Specifically, Biden splits the voters evenly when it comes to favorable vs. unfavorable opinions of him, with 44 percent holding both opinions. By comparison, at this time in the election cycle in 2016, 34 percent of voters had a favorable opinion of Clinton, while 52 percent had an unfavorable opinion of her.

As for Trump, he currently has a 38 percent favorability rating, with 55 percent having an unfavorable view of him. At this time four years ago, he held a 31 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable rating.

What’s more, 21 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of both candidates.

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said that Trump’s incumbency also appears to be boding ill for him.

“Four years ago, Clinton was the insider candidate who approximated an incumbent in many voters’ minds. There is no mistaking who wears that mantle this year. Trump’s problem is that voters who aren’t enamored with either candidate tend to go for change,” Murray said.