Biden Delivers Another Strong Showing, Emerges Clear Winner of Final Presidential Debate
By Isa Alomran
With less than two weeks until Election Day, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in the second and final debate of the 2020 election cycle. As both candidates sparred over a number of key issues last night--including healthcare, the coronavirus pandemic, and climate change policy-- differences between their policy positions and their temperaments were on full display. With both campaigns now in the homestretch and as early voting reaches historic levels, last night’s performances could be especially consequential in motivating undecided voters in key states to finally make up their minds about their election day vote.
After the conclusion of the final debate, Data for Progress fielded a series of questions to gauge reactions from viewers. The sample of 657 debate watchers was weighted to be representative of the universe of national likely voters.
We find that a majority of debate watchers think Biden clearly won the debate. Among all likely voters, Biden “won” by a 12- point margin (52 percent Biden, 40 percent Trump). These findings are nearly identical to the survey conducted by Data for Progress after the previous debate, indicating that voters found Biden’s performances consistently strong.
We also asked likely voters if they thought former Vice President Joe Biden was a “decent man”. By a 36 point margin, voters agreed that Biden was a decent man (62 percent agreed, 26 percent disagreed). On the other hand, when voters were asked the same question about President Trump, support for the president’s character was lacking. A majority of voters (52 percent) said they did not think Trump was a “decent man.”
We also asked viewers how much they thought each candidate lied or told the truth during the debate. Voters believed that Biden told the truth by a margin of 23 percentage points. However, when asked about President Trump’s honesty during the debate, a plurality of voters (49 percent) said they think he mostly lied.
Voters also think that the debate moderator, NBC’s Kristen Welker, was unbiased and did not favor either candidate. A majority of voters (74 percent) said they thought Welker treated both candidates equally.
Biden’s responses to questions about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic seem to contribute to voters’ opinions on his overall performance, as a majority of viewers thought his performance on the issue was superior to that of President Trump. By a 12-point margin, voters said that Biden is the stronger candidate to lead the country out of the COVID-19 pandemic (52 percent Biden, 40 percent Trump).
Similarly, voters thought that Biden was the stronger candidate to protect people with pre-existing conditions. A majority of voters (52 percent) said that Biden would protect individuals with preexisting conditions better than Trump.
Our polling shows that last night’s debate was a win for former Vice President Joe Biden. With margins of victory identical to the last debate, our findings indicate that voters’ perceptions of Biden’ are nearly identical in the last two weeks of the election as they were nearly a month ago. Viewers also looked favorably on Biden’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and protecting pre-existing conditions, two key issues that will only grow more relevant in the weeks and months following Election Day. What this debate performance means for Trump’s reelection chances remains unclear, but what is clear is that it was not the win his campaign could have used to sway voters so close to election day.
Isa Alomran is an Intern at Data for Progress