3 Weeks Until US Election, Biden Maintains Lead by 12 Percentage Points
Biden's Lead Grows in Swing States Like Michigan
Trump Holds Series of Rallies in Swing States This Week
"I Am Immune to COVID-19," Claims Trump
[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] U.S. President Donald Trump, who was treated for the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), is launching an all-out campaign for the remaining three weeks until the presidential election. Based on his physician's opinion that there is no longer any possibility of COVID-19 transmission, he will resume targeting battleground states such as Florida and Pennsylvania starting this week. As the gap in approval ratings with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden remains stubbornly around 10%, he is putting even more effort into on-site campaigning.
According to the White House on the 11th (local time), President Trump will restart his campaign in battleground states this week. Starting with Florida on the 12th, he will visit Pennsylvania on the 13th, and Iowa and North Carolina on the 14th and 15th, respectively. He is pushing through a schedule to tour major U.S. battleground states over four days. This reflects the judgment that he can no longer delay re-targeting battleground states. In particular, President Trump expressed strong determination for on-site campaigning by claiming immunity to COVID-19 on that day.
However, recent approval rating polls still show Democratic candidate Biden holding an advantage over President Donald Trump. In a joint survey released the previous day by U.S. ABC News and The Washington Post (WP), Biden's approval rating was 12 percentage points ahead of President Trump.
The situation in battleground states is similar. According to results announced on the 11th from a survey conducted from the 30th of last month to the 8th by Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, together with Oakland University and Ohio Northern University, Biden's approval rating in Michigan was 50.2%, 7 percentage points ahead of President Trump's 43.2%. In a survey commissioned by CBS News to polling agency YouGov, conducted from the 6th to the 9th and released on the same day, Biden received 52% approval, leading President Trump's 46% by 6 percentage points.
Michigan is a battleground state with significant importance in this year's presidential election. Michigan, home to Detroit, is a representative area of the "Rust Belt," a term referring to the declining industrial region. Although chaos continues in Michigan, where a white far-right group’s attempt to kidnap the Democratic governor, who had recently taken strong measures against COVID-19, was preemptively detected, the election trend is leaning toward Biden.
Pennsylvania is also seeing Biden widen the gap with President Trump. In Pennsylvania, Biden holds 49.6% approval, while President Trump has 44.5%, showing a 5.1 percentage point gap. In Wisconsin, where racial discrimination protests were intense, Biden leads with 49.2% over Trump's 42.5%. Considering there are six key battleground states, three of them can already be seen as leaning toward Biden.
Biden is also ahead in Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona. Florida is a battleground state with a large number of 29 electoral votes, making the competition between the two candidates fierce. According to RealClearPolitics’ aggregated current average approval ratings in Florida, Biden holds a 3.7 percentage point lead over President Trump.
Although President Trump has a busy road ahead, negative factors remain. His mention of meetings with families of fallen soldiers as a reason for COVID-19 infection has angered military-related voters. Political media The Hill reported, "President Trump faced criticism from military-related supporters for claiming that families of fallen soldiers were sources of COVID-19 infection." Earlier, reports that President Trump referred to fallen soldiers as "losers" caused a major controversy.
President Trump expressed confidence that he will win according to the approval rating polls. On the same day, he mentioned the ABC and WP polls on his Twitter, writing, "It was a complete disaster in 2016 as well," and added, "I will win by a bigger margin than in 2016."
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