Nov. 5 (UPI) — One year before the 2024 election, polls show President Joe Biden trailing Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in five of six critical battleground states as voters expressed more trust in the GOP to deal with pressing issues facing the nation.
If the ballot was held today, Biden would lose to Trump by up to 10% in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania as concerns were growing about the president’s age and his ongoing handling of the economy, according to a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College. Biden was only leading in Wisconsin by two points after he carried all six in the 2020 election.
The president is now trailing Trump with an average of about 44% to 48%. Many voters have turned sour on Biden’s policies nearly three years into his term.
“The world is falling apart under Biden,” said Spencer Weiss, a 53-year-old electrical substation specialist in Bloomsburg, Pa., who told The New York Times he voted for him in 2020 but now supports Trump. “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.”
Polls show Biden’s lead slipping with voters under the age of 30, and among Hispanic voters, whose support was down in urban and rural regions nationwide.
Biden continued to hold strong support from women, while men were leaning toward Trump by a significantly larger margin.
In a historic shift notable to Democrats, 22% of Black voters said they planned to support the Republican nominee.
Meanwhile, neither candidate held a significant advantage over the other on matters related to the economy, healthcare and education, while about a third of Americans said they lacked confidence in either party’s ability to solve the nation’s problems.
A separate poll conducted by ABC News/Ipsos also showed that Republicans were generally thought by American adults to be tougher on crime and immigration while Democrats were trusted more to deal with issues like gun violence, abortion and climate change.
Notably, polls showed that voters didn’t particularly like either Biden or Trump, but a majority of Americans indicated they would likely not change their feelings on the way they’ll vote, even if another two candidates emerged.
More voters said they believed Trump could deliver improved financial conditions for the country and that he was better equipped to keep the United States out of war.
Meanwhile, Trump is facing several upcoming criminal trials during the height of the campaign season, including one in March involving his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Separately, Trump was hit with a federal indictment in Florida this past summer on 37 counts for his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence after leaving office.
Trump, who is the first president in history to face federal criminal charges, was also indicted with 19 co-defendants under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law for conspiracy to commit fraud in the 2020 election.
He is also set to go on civil trial in January as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, who seeks $10 million in damages from the former president.
He continues to deny any wrongdoing relating to any of his court cases.
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