Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has a 16-point lead over President Donald Trump among likely voters nationwide, according to a new survey released less than a month from Election Day.
A CNN poll published Tuesday reports that a majority of likely voters surveyed, 57 percent, prefer Biden, while 41 percent favor Trump. The previous version of the same poll, conducted in late August and early September, did not survey likely voters but showed Biden with an 8-point lead among registered voters, 51-43 percent.
The latest CNN poll was conducted last Thursday through Sunday, after the first presidential debate last Tuesday night and mostly after Trump’s public announcement last Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19. He was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and returned to the White House on Monday evening.
Still, Biden had consistently notched high-single-digit or low-double-digit leads over Trump, while also maintaining advantages in several swing states. As of Tuesday morning, Biden was ahead of Trump by 8.5 points nationally, according to a RealClearPolitics average of general election polling conducted from Sept. 21-Oct. 4.
Although Biden’s national edge is eye-popping, pollsters have lent greater credence to surveys of individual states in the closing weeks of the race. Those statewide polls of a handful of battlegrounds are believed to be more determinative of the Electoral College outcome.
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