President Donald Trump has surrendered his election lead in a pivotal state, the latest poll from Morning Consult shows.
The data — released early Tuesday morning — showed former Vice President Joe Biden leading Trump by two points in Texas. Trump previously held a seven-point lead over Biden in the state, per Morning Consult’s May polling. The survey includes responses from 2,685 likely and registered voters reached between July 17-26 and has a margin of error of 1.9%.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 27: U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after he landing aboard Marine One at the White House July 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump was returning from a visit to the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ Innovation Center in Morrisville, North Carolina, a facility that supports manufacturing of “key components of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate” developed by Novavax. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Morning Consult’s numbers do, however, show national support for Trump staying nearly constant over the past two months. Both in the latest poll and in a poll mid-May, 43% of respondents said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today. Support for Biden has risen two points to 51% across the same time frame.
Numerous polls have shown the president struggling in key battleground states, especially those in the South currently dealing with coronavirus spikes. The latest poll from Quinnipiac University gave Biden a 13-point advantage over Trump in Florida. (RELATED: The Polls Look Bad For Trump, So Why Are Two Top Pollsters Still Saying He Can Pull Off Reelection?)
Republican, Democrat and Independent support for Trump’s pandemic response has dropped significantly overall since May. ABC, The Washington Post, and Langer Research Institutes found that just 38% of survey participants approved of the federal government’s response to coronavirus. The same poll showed that 63% would prioritize regaining control of the pandemic over jump-starting the economy.
Trump frequently talks about the inaccuracy of polls and points to 2016 metrics that showed him trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a significant margin heading into November. He additionally told a group of reporters gathered Monday at the FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies facility in North Carolina that his campaign’s internal polling showed him leading Biden in most battleground states.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 27: U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn after he landing aboard Marine One at the White House July 27, 2020 in Washington, DC. Trump was returning from a visit to the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ Innovation Center in Morrisville, North Carolina, a facility that supports manufacturing of “key components of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate” developed by Novavax. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“We’re leading in North Carolina. We’re leading in Pennsylvania. We’re leading in Arizona,” he stated. “We’re leading nicely in Florida. I think our poll numbers are very good. We’re leading substantially in Georgia.”
“Four years ago, I was losing everywhere. I had poll numbers where I wasn’t going to win any state, and I ended up winning every one of them. You know the swing states, I wasn’t going to win any of them and I won all of them”