Jacob Ogles
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Joe Biden widening his lead in Florida. The same poll earlier this week showed him statistically tied with President Donald Trump.
Results published Wednesday evening show Biden at 50% support, a critical threshold if he wants to win Florida’s 29 electoral votes. About 46% of Florida voters favor Trump’s reelection. Pollsters say the 4-percentage-point lead puts Biden’s advantage “on the edge of the survey’s credibility interval,” reported at 4%.
That’s a different situation than the most recent polling from the outfit, which gave Biden a 49% to 47% advantage, a difference within the poll’s margin of error.
The most recent Florida poll was conducted between Oct. 14 and Oct. 20. This will likely be the last poll completed by the outlet before the final Presidential debate, scheduled for Thursday.
Florida is the largest swing state, and widely considered a must-win state for Trump to reach the necessary 270 electoral votes to win a second term in the White House. Returters/Ipsos also released polling showing Biden leading 49% to 46% in Arizona, 51% to 44% in Michigan, 49% to 46% in North Carolina, 49% to 45% in Pennsylvania, and 51% to 43% in Wisconsin.
Trump won Florida over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by just over 1 point.
Beyond the top lines, pollsters found 21% of Floridians polled already voted, a percentage fairly consistent with reports from the Division of Elections.
Respondents did give Trump the edge on a significant issue. About 51% of those polled believe the Republican would be better at managing the economy, with only 45% favoring Biden.
But 50% of voters said they trust Biden more in terms of handling the coronavirus pandemic, while around 42% believe Trump would do the better job.
About 47% of voters listed the COVID-19 outbreak as the most important issue to them this year, with 20% ranking the economy as their top concern. Health care came in third as the top concern of 20% of voters.
Overall, about 53% of those polled disapprove of Trump’s job performance so far while 46% approve.
The Florida poll included responses from 662 likely voters.
4 comments
S.B. ANTHONY
October 21, 2020 at 8:57 pm
I’m always amazed at how people think a failed businessman, who inherited a booming economy from a Democratic administration and ran it into the ground, is the better choice on the issue of the economy.
When millions of people are lining up at food banks and being evicted from their housing, people still think we have a good economy? And that trump handles an economy better than Biden could? My two year old could do a better job than trump.
Fredrick
October 22, 2020 at 12:31 am
We need to vote this psychopath out of the White House before he finishes wrecking our country. People have now seen who he really is. The illusion was revealed. No excuse to make the same mistake twice.
DisplacedCTYankee
October 22, 2020 at 7:34 am
I am not proud to live in a state where only half the population is sane.
PeterH
October 22, 2020 at 4:47 pm
Trump managed to bring back the 1918 Pandemic, the 1929 Depression and the 1968 Race Riots ALL AT THE SAME TIME!
Can we please all agree that this experiment of having a dumb TV host and corrupt real estate developer with six bankruptcies, five kids from three different marriages, eleven charges of sexual assault, and over 4000 lawsuits as president is not going well at all?
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