Former President Donald Trump leads President Biden in five out of six key battleground states that are pivotal to winning next year’s general election, according to new polling results from The New York Times and Siena College.
The polling results for registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania show Biden losing to Trump by margins of four to ten points.
“Across the six battlegrounds — all of which Mr. Biden carried in 2020 — the president trails by an average of 48 to 44 percent,” the Times reported.
The results show significant discontent with Biden and his policies over the past three years. Across both genders and all ages, races, education levels, and income brackets, a majority of respondents said that Biden’s policies have hurt them personally.
By contrast, a majority of respondents said that Trump’s policies helped them personally.
The poll slightly oversampled Republicans. It also shows that independent voters who are unaffiliated with either major political party now consider themselves to be leaning more toward the GOP.
Among respondents, 49 percent say they voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, while 45 say they voted for Trump.
“The world is falling apart under Biden,” Spencer Weiss, a 53-year-old electrical substation specialist in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, told the Times.
Weiss, who supported Mr. Biden in 2020 but is now backing Mr. Trump, albeit with some reservations, added, “I would much rather see somebody that I feel can be a positive role-model leader for the country. But at least I think Trump has his wits about him.”
Democrats quickly downplayed the unfavorable data, reminding voters that polls a year prior to an election are often wrong.
“Predictions more than a year out tend to look a little different a year later,” Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for Biden’s re-election, told Axios. “Don’t take our word for it: Gallup predicted an eight point loss for President Obama only for him to win handedly a year later.”
In all six swing states, respondents said they believe that Biden is “too liberal or progressive,” giving him strong headwinds prior to a potential second term, where he will continue to push hard-left priorities like cutting America’s use of fossil fuels, federalizing abortion, and enacting various gun control measures.
Though the Times/Siena polling results are a boon for Trump, whose support is rising despite 91 felony charges in four different jurisdictions, a majority of voters said that even if Trump were convicted and sentenced to prison and remained the Republican nominee, they would still vote for him over Biden.
Other recent surveys, however, have shown the opposite.
One report indicates that six percent of voters in swing states would change their vote to Biden if Trump were convicted, a number high enough to hand Biden an election win.
Nearly half of Republicans say they would not vote for Trump if he were convicted of a felony, according to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll.
