President Joe Biden, Washington, Sept. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)/Former President Donald Trump in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former President Donald Trump is gaining momentum in crucial battleground states, raising concerns for President Joe Biden’s re-election prospects. Recent CNN polls conducted by SSRS reveal that Trump has the upper hand in two pivotal states: Michigan and Georgia. These findings come as broad majorities in both states express negative views of President Biden’s job performance, policy positions, and overall leadership.
In Georgia, a state narrowly carried by Biden in 2020, registered voters now favor Trump over Biden by a margin of 49 percent to 44 percent in a hypothetical two-way presidential matchup. Meanwhile, in Michigan, where Biden won with a wider margin, Trump enjoys a substantial lead with 50 percent support compared to Biden’s 40 percent, CNN reports.
Trump’s resurgence in these states is bolstered by support from voters who did not cast ballots in the 2020 election. In Georgia, these voters favor Trump by 26 points, and in Michigan, they give him a 40-point advantage. Conversely, voters who participated in the 2020 election continue to lean towards Biden, albeit with a weaker hold on his 2020 backers than Trump.
President Biden is struggling with declining support among Black voters. And, while the polls indicate that some Black voters may support Trump, the bigger concern is the potential decline in voter turnout among this demographic.
Recent polls by The New York Times and Siena College found that 22 percent of Black voters in six of the most important battleground states said they would support Trump, and 71 percent would back Biden.
In 2020, Trump won only 8 percent of Black voters nationally in 2020 and 6 percent in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center.
“I don’t think we’ve been voicing what we delivered to the African American community and particularly among younger African American men,” Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster for Mr. Biden’s campaign in 2020, told The New York Times, adding the president’s political operation had not been “present enough” for Black Americans and younger voters. “We have to get the numbers up and we have to get African American voters out to vote, and we have to get the numbers up with young people and we have to get them out to vote.”
President Joe Biden, Washington, Sept. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)/Former President Donald Trump in Waco, Texas, March 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
