ABC News poll shows Biden leads Trump by 15 points nationally
WASHINGTON, DC -- The new ABC News/Washington Post poll is the latest to show former Vice President Joe Biden on a roll.
He leads President Donald Trump 55% to 40% among registered voters. It's a slightly tighter 54% to 44% among likely voters.
Public preference for Biden over Trump in trust to handle the coronavirus pandemic has soared since March, boosting Biden – along with other measures – in the race for the White House.
Three and a half months ago the two candidates were virtually even in trust to handle the pandemic, Trump +2 percentage points, 45-43%. Today, with cases surging around the nation, Biden leads Trump on the issue by a 20-point margin, 54-34%.
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%.
But Biden's advantage is perhaps most evident among suburban voters, where he is earning a historic amount of support for a Democrat.
Biden is up by a 52% to 43% margin among suburban voters in the ABC News/Washington Post poll.
The suburbs are a bellwether vote of sorts in our current political environment. That is, the suburban vote mirrors the national vote closer than the urban or rural vote.
Biden's lead in the suburbs is reflective of him doing significantly better than Hillary Clinton. Four years ago at this time, Trump was beating Clinton by a 45% to 35% margin in the ABC/Washington Post poll among suburban voters.
In other words, we're looking at nearly a 20-point improvement for Biden versus where Clinton was at this point in the 2016 campaign.
Winning Democratic candidates do tend to carry the suburbs, though none by as much as the poll currently has Biden ahead. Back in 2008 (the best year for Democrats this century), Obama won in the suburbs by 2 points in the exit polls. The final ABC News/Washington Post poll had him winning in the suburbs by 5 points.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted July 12-15, 2020, among a random national sample of 1,006 adults, including 845 registered voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points for the full sample and 4.0 points among registered voters.
You can see further polling data breakouts in the document below.
