Trump narrows gap with Biden by only two points in 'must-win' battleground Florida, reveals new poll
With the presidential election less than a month-and-half away, the focus has shifted on Florida for a number of reasons. The Sunshine State is key for both President Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent Joe Biden to win as it has 29 electoral votes. Trump won the state by just 1.2 percent in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and his team will eye another win there to see the incumbent clinches his second successive win. However, the decision by former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg to spend a whopping $100 million in Florida alone to help Biden’s cause has caused quite a sensation ahead of the high-profile battle of November 3.
While the Trump camp has tried to shrug off Bloomberg’s contribution by saying that it could win the White House even without bagging Florida, the president also came up with an aid package worth $13 billion for Puerto Rico recently, three years after it was battered by Hurricane Maria — prompting the experts to believe that it was a counter move to woo the Hispanic votes in and around Florida. According to a recent poll, Biden is underperforming among the Hispanic voters in Florida while Trump has marginally gone ahead and it has made the battle in the swing state even more captivating.
Biden leads Trump 48-46 points
Now, yet another poll has come out suggesting the gap between Biden and Trump has narrowed down to only two points. As per the poll by CBS News that came out on Sunday, September 20, Biden has 48 percent backing in Florida as against Trump’s 46 percent. The survey was conducted between September 15 and 18 with a 3.7 percent margin of error and it asked 1,200 voters about their preference in the November 3 election. Around five percent of the voters said they were “not sure” whom they wanted to back in the election.
The Democrats will be less than happy even if Biden is leading because in July, he was found to be six points ahead of the incumbent in Florida. In terms of demographics, the president has taken a lead among the White people who are likely to vote in Florida with an overwhelming 59 percent vouching for him. When seen against the overall Hispanic voters, Biden was leading by around 20 points over Trump but in some key states, that lead evaporates. Florida has become a toss-up state now as both parties have taken the state thrice each in the last six presidential elections.
The economy is playing a significant role behind Trump’s reported bouncing back in Florida. According to the CBS News poll, while all of Trump’s supporters feel he is helping the economy to recover, a quarter of the former vice-president’s likely voters acknowledge that the president’s policies are either helping or leaving a neutral impact. That, however, hasn’t convinced them to not vote for Biden because they do not support the president’s way of personally handling himself. Besides Florida, more voters in Texas also say that Trump would do a better job in handling the economy which has taken a heavy toll as a result of the pandemic. Many of them feel the incumbent’s economic policies would help their family’s financial condition better than Biden’s plan.