‘CBS News’ Poll Shows Donald Trump Trailing Joe Biden In Florida, Tight Race In Texas And Arizona
A CBS News poll released on Sunday found that President Donald Trump is trailing the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden in Florida, also establishing that the two candidates are virtually tied in Texas and Arizona.
The poll found that Biden has a six-point advantage over Trump in Florida, while Trump is ahead of Biden by a percentage point in Texas. In Arizona, both men polled at 46 percent.
Biden appears to have gained ground among demographic groups that supported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. In all three Sun Belt states, the former vice president enjoys strong support among women and non-white voters, and he has also improved his standing among seniors.
In each state, Trump is doing better than Biden with men, white evangelicals and white voters without a college degree. These three constituencies carried the president to victory four years ago.
The survey showed that Trump voters are slightly more enthusiastic about their candidate than Biden backers, but there are some major differences between the two groups.
Forty-nine percent of those who support Biden said that they will vote for him “to oppose Donald Trump,” while only 30 percent said they will cast their ballot because they like the former vice president.
Conversely, 67 percent of Trump supporters said that they back him because they like him, while only 17 percent stated that they support the commander-in-chief in order to “oppose Joe Biden.”
Both Biden and Trump supporters are unlikely to change their minds about the 2020 presidential election. The survey found that more than 90 percent of their backers would never vote for the opposing candidate.
According to CBS News, the coronavirus pandemic is “reshaping the race” in all three states.
“Biden has made gains in part because most say their state’s efforts to contain the virus are going badly — and the more concerned voters are about risks from the outbreak, the more likely they are to support Biden.”
In all three states, around two-thirds of respondents said that they think efforts to deal with COVID-19 in their state are going badly.
“Those with the most negative assessments of their state’s handling of COVID-19 and those most concerned about contracting it themselves are more likely to be voting for Biden,” the publication noted.
Other recent surveys paint a similar picture, suggesting that Biden is ahead in key battleground states. A CNBC/Change Research poll released earlier this month showed that Trump is trailing Biden in Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
