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Joe Biden's favorability rises to 55% while Trump's dips to 42%, post-election Gallup poll shows

While the president-elect's favorability among GOP has gone up, that of Trump has slipped
PUBLISHED DEC 1, 2020
 Trump and President-elect Joe Biden (Getty Images)
Trump and President-elect Joe Biden (Getty Images)

President Donald Trump and his loyalists are still hoping against hope that the results of the 2020 presidential election will eventually be overturned because they believe it was fought unjustly by the opponents who they have accused of indulging in voter fraud. Trump still believes that the large turnouts at his rallies ahead of the election is evidence of his popularity. However, if one goes by a post-election survey conducted by Gallup, President-elect Joe Biden’s favorability has gone up while that of the incumbent has fallen. 

According to the survey, Biden’s approval rating is at 55 percent, which is the highest since he entered the 2020 race for the White House. It is just one point less than his favorability rate as was registered in February 2019 -- two months before he announced his candidacy. 

Trump’s rating, on the other hand, is 42 percent -- much lower than that (49 percent) registered before the election in February and May 2020

Biden's favorability in GOP rises, Trump's slips

The Gallup poll also cited that the increase in Biden’s favorability was facilitated by the GOP and Independents. With the Republicans, it went up from six to 12 percent (between Oct 16-27 and Nov 5-19) while in the case of the Independents, the surge was from 48 to 55 percent. Biden always had a steady positive rating from the Democrats (95 to 96 percent) who bridged inner differences to rally behind him for this year’s election. In the case of Trump, the incumbent lost six points within the Republican group (95 to 89 percent). 

The findings are not surprising. Biden’s high favorability rating is consistent with the historical fact that candidates winning the election have a high approval rating immediately after the battle. The only exception to this trend happened in 2016 when Trump beat Hillary Clinton to bag his first and only term. Trump's post-election favorability was only 42 percent, one point less than Hillary despite making a leap of eight points. It was also the only time since 2000 that a winning candidate's favorability rate was below 50 percent.

President Donald Trump with his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton (Getty Images)

Losing candidates' favorability ratings

Losing candidates in presidential elections also have had mixed luck. In 2016, Hillary found little change in her approval rating while two Republican presidential candidates -- Mitt Romney (2012) and John McCain (2008) -- had an increase of four and 14 points, respectively, after losing to former president Barack Obama. 

The post-election findings came at a time when Trump has refused to concede a defeat against Biden and his team has engaged in lengthy legal battles to overturn the results, though with little success. While the courts have done Trump little favor, the crucial battleground states have begun to certify their poll results in favor of the former vice president. 

Trump’s own words have also sounded inconsistent over conceding defeat. While he has given nod to the General Services Administration to start the transition process, he has also warned that Biden will be allowed to enter the White House only if he could prove that he did not win through illegal votes. Biden has beaten Trump by more than six million votes. 

The interview for the Gallup poll was conducted between November 5 and 19 and included a random sample of 1,018 adults from all the 50 states besides DC. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four points.

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