Trump Holds Lead Over Biden in Five of Six Battleground States, According to NY Times Poll

Former President Donald Trump is ahead of President Joe Biden by an average of 48% to 44% in five out of the six most important battleground states, all of which Biden carried in the 2020 election, according to new polls by The New York Times and Siena College.

Biden’s numbers suffered in the polls because of voters’ doubts about his age, as well as their dissatisfaction over how he handles the economy and other major issues, reports The New York Times.

The poll shows him losing to Trump, his most likely GOP challenger, by three to 10 percentage points with registered voters in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada.

In Wisconsin, the only battleground state where Biden was ahead, he only led Trump by two percentage points. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 1.8 percentage points with all states combined, but between 4.4 and 4.8 percentage points for each state.

The results, with numbers based on polls of 3,662 registered voters from Oct. 22 to Nov. 3, are as follows:

• Nevada: Trump, 52%; Biden, 41%.
• Georgia: Trump, 49%; Biden, 43%.
• Arizona: Trump, 49%; Biden, 44%.
• Michigan: Trump, 48%; Biden, 43%.
• Pennsylvania: Trump, 48%; Biden, 44%.
• Wisconsin: Biden, 47%; Trump, 45%.
• Men preferred Trump by 62% to 33%.
• Women preferred Biden by 47% to 46%.

A majority of the voters in the poll said Biden’s policies have personally hurt them, and the survey showed that the multigenerational and multiracial coalition that led to his win in 2020 is coming apart. It also showed that two-thirds of the electorate is seeing the United States moving in the wrong direction under the president.

This time around, voters under the age of 30 only favored Biden by one percentage point, the poll shows. Further, his lead with Hispanic voters registered in the single digits, and his advantage in urban areas came out to be half of what Trump has in rural areas.

Further, the poll shows that women still favor Biden, but men prefer Trump by twice as much.

Black voters also slipped away from Biden, registering 22% support in the key battleground states for Trump. This is a level that hasn’t been seen for a Republican presidential candidate in recent years.

The poll also found that Biden only led in Wisconsin, the whitest state of the six polled.

But even with Trump coming out ahead in the poll, both he and Biden remain deeply unpopular with the voters, but they also blamed Biden, not Trump, when saying the nation is on the wrong track.

With the presidential election a year away, Biden has time to turn the numbers around, and his advisers have stressed Democrats’ limited party losses in the 2022 midterm elections, even though the president had poor approval ratings.

But if the poll’s numbers hold up, Trump will take more than 300 Electoral College votes, coming in with numbers far higher than the 270 he’ll need to return to the White Houe.

Meanwhile, voters across all income levels said they think Biden’s policies hurt them, but Trump’s helped them.

Also, 71% of the voters said Biden, who will turn 81 later this month, is “too old” to be effective as president. This opinion was shared across all demographics and states and included 54% of Biden’s supporters.

The poll also showed that only 19% of Trump’s supporters viewed him at the age of 77 as being too old, with 39% of the poll’s respondents agreeing.

In addition, 62% said they do not think Biden has the “mental sharpness” to be an effective president.

In another problematic finding for Biden, 59% said they trust Trump more on the economy, compared to 37% for Biden.

This comes as twice as many voters said economic issues will determine how they vote in the 2024 election as those who said they would base a vote on social issues like abortion or guns. The voters who said the economy is most important favored Trump by 60% to 32%.

Further, just 2% of the voters said they think the economy is excellent, and fewer than 1% of voters under the age of 30 said they think the economy is excellent, including none of the poll respondents in the age group in Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

In other numbers, voters also overwhelmingly favored Trump on immigration, national security, and the Israel-Hamas war.