Former U.S.Vice President Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by a 52% to 43% margin among suburban voters, said ABC News/Washington Post poll, showing the former's advantage in the polls is visibly evident in the suburbs, where he is earning a historic amount of support for a Democrat.
Last month polls showed Biden doing even better among suburban voters, while June CNN poll had Biden with a 14-point lead in the suburbs. The average of all the polls point out that Biden is ahead by nearly 20 points with suburban voters, which makes him to win with a historic margin, if it holds.
The fact that the suburbs are a bellwether vote mirroring the national vote closer than the urban or rural vote, poll predictions indicate a clear lead for Biden, far better than Hillary Clinton in the last elections, when Trump was beating Clinton by a 45% to 35% margin in the ABC/Washington Post poll among suburban voters.
Public preference for Joe Biden over Donald Trump in trust to handle the coronavirus pandemic has soared since March in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, boosting Biden – along with other measures – in the race for the White House, said the statement listing the poll outcome. Three and a half months ago the two candidates were virtually even in trust to handle the pandemic, Trump +2 percentage points, 45-43 percent.
Today, with COVID-19 cases surging around the nation, Biden leads Trump on the issue by a 20-point margin, 54-34 percent. Biden's also advanced, nearly to par with Trump, in trust to handle the economy, after trailing in March. Biden leads Trump by 9 points on handling crime and safety, a focal point of Trump's in recent weeks. And on race relations, Biden leads by his largest margin, 25 points, 58-33 percent, according to the poll results.
Defeating Trump
Biden has his own risks, particularly a pronounced lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy. Yet the impact of that deficit remains to be seen: For two-thirds of his supporters, it's chiefly not about electing Biden, but about defeating Trump. The president, moreover, has other challenges, ranging from performance assessments to personal attributes.
As reported Friday, approval of his handling of the pandemic has fallen from 51 percent in late March to 38 percent now, with disapproval up 15 points. He's lost 7 points in approval of his handling of the economy, to 50 percent, with disapproval up 9. Trump's overall job approval rating is 39 percent in this poll, down 9 points in the course of the pandemic, with disapproval up 11.
Trump's Record
Trump remains the first president in modern polling never to achieve majority approval for his work in office, with the lowest career average on record.
Barack Obama won in the suburbs by 2 points in the exit polls though the final ABC News/Washington Post poll had him winning in the suburbs by 5 points. Lyndon Johnson in 1964 was the only Democrat in the last 70 years who probably won by double-digits in the suburbs, with 23 points.
Compared to 1964, Biden is currently running ahead of his national numbers in the suburbs with averages of about 13 points. In the swing areas from the Philadelphia suburbs to northeast Pennsylvania, Biden leads by a 54% to 35% margin. It was the suburbs that supported the Democrats to majority in the House in 2018.
