Joe Biden has taken a narrow lead over Donald Trump in the key battleground state of Florida, a newly released poll shows.
The Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday shows that Biden has a four-point advantage over Trump in the Sunshine State, with 46 percent support to the president’s 42 percent. As The Hill wrote, the slim lead for Biden reflects the personal popularity of both politicians, with the former vice president enjoying a more favorable view with the state’s voters than Trump.
“Among registered voters in Florida, Biden is more popular than not. Forty-three percent said that they have a favorable view of the former vice president, compared to 40 percent who said they see him unfavorably,” the report noted.
“Trump’s favorability, meanwhile, is underwater, with 43 percent of Florida voters reporting a positive opinion of the president and 50 percent viewing him unfavorably.”
Florida is expected to be one of the key states in the 2020 presidential election, with Trump’s narrow win there in 2016 helping push him to an unexpected victory over Hillary Clinton. Florida had gone blue in both previous presidential cycles, with Barack Obama winning there in 2012 and 2008 and Biden alongside him on the Democratic Party’s ticket.
Trump has already invested plenty of resources into Florida for this cycle, holding a series of rallies and spending extensive time at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Democrats too have been targeting Florida as a potential flip from 2016, pointing to close results in statewide elections there in 2018.
Other polls have shown a tight race between Trump and Biden in Florida and other important states. A CNBC/Change Research survey of six battleground states including Florida showed that the president held a one-point lead across all states. The survey found that voters were split in a number of key areas, with Trump leading as a candidate who could better guide the economy out of a recession. Biden, meanwhile, emerged more favorable in terms of his handling of the coronavirus, making healthcare more affordable, and preventing another pandemic like COVID-19.
Biden has seen an uptick in head-to-head polling since Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders announced he would be suspending his campaign, making the former vice president the presumptive nominee. Biden has earned a series of important endorsements since then, including those from Sanders and Obama. Trump saw a boost in his own approval rating with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, though his numbers have fallen off as polls show voters increasingly disapproving of his response to it.