Washington: Democratic presidential nominee and former vice- president Joe Biden is slowly stealing a march over incumbent President Donald Trump. Joe Biden has an impressive 12-point lead over Trump in the race for the White House. This is according to a Fox News opinion poll. The majority of the voters cited racism, unemployment and the coronavirus pandemic as major threats to the stability of the country. They said they would not vote for Trump.
Gap widening
The campaign for the November 3 presidential election is gradually taking off after months of pause due to COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Fox News’, the favourite channel of the president, reported that Biden has widened the poll margin over Trump.
Last month, Biden had an advantage of eight points against Trump who is seeking re-election on the Republican ticket. Now Biden has increased his lead to 12 points, the report said.
According to the Fox poll, the polling was done between June 13 and 16. Fifty per cent of the respondents supported Biden against 38 per cent for Trump.
“Negative emotions like fear, anxiety, and anger, can be powerful motivators for political participation,” said Daron Shaw. She conducted the Fox News poll with Democrat Chris Anderson.
“The lack of enthusiasm for Biden, however, does create an opening for Trump. He can define him as out of touch and not up to the task,” Shaw was quoted as saying.
Healthy lead
According to ‘RealClearPolitics’, which tracks all major national polls, Biden on average leads Trump by 8.8 percentage points.
Biden leads in four of the five battleground States of Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Arizona. The two are in a tie in North Carolina, according to ‘RealClearPolitics’.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality, voters see Biden as empathetic and respectful, Fox News reported. Forty-seven per cent say the phrase ‘cares about people like me’ describes Biden compared to 37 per cent who say it fits Trump. Fifty-three per cent believe Biden respects racial minorities whereas 35 per cent who say the same about president Trump.
‘Fake Polls’
But Trump has dismissed the outcome of these opinion polls. He said Thursday that many polls were ‘fake’ and a form of ‘suppression’.
“It’s like with Hillary (Clinton),” Trump said, referring to the former Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. “I was behind in the polls in the battleground states in every poll. Then I ended up winning all those states … and winning states that I wasn’t even supposed to be in play,” Trump asserted.
“We won Michigan, we won Wisconsin – great states – so we were behind. I don’t believe we’re behind because in my polls, we’re ahead. We have polls, and in my polls, we’re ahead,” Trump said.
Racism, a major issues
Race has become a major issue in the minds of voters. This was after the president’s handling of the protests in response to the killing of 46-year-old African-American George Floyd. Trump has been severely criticised for the way he has handled the coronavirus situation in the US. The pandemic continues to ravage the health and finances of Americans. The US has 2.1 million cases of coronavirus and more than 117,000 people have died.