Donald Trump, the Republican challenger in the U.S. presidential contest, opened up a marginal 2 percentage point lead over U.S. President Joe Biden this week in the race to win the November election, as voters weigh the recent criminal convictions of Trump and of Biden’s son, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
Some 41% of registered voters in the two-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, while 39% picked Biden, a Democrat. Some 20% of voters in the poll said they had not picked a candidate, were leaning toward third-party options or might not vote at all in the Nov. 5 election.
Trump’s lead was within the survey’s roughly 3 percentage point margin of error for registered voters, many of whom remain on the fence with about five months left before the Nov. 5 election. A prior Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted May 31-June 1 showed Biden with a 2 percentage point lead over Trump, 41% to 39%.
The latest poll found 10% of respondents would pick Robert Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist running as an independent, if he were on the ballot with Trump and Biden. Kennedy’s share was unchanged from the prior poll.
While nationwide surveys give important signals on American support for political candidates, just a handful of competitive states typically tilt the balance in the U.S. electoral college, which ultimately decides who wins a presidential election.
Both candidates carry significant liabilities in the first U.S. presidential election rematch in nearly 70 years.
Source: Reuters
