Joe Biden Continues to Lead Trump Heading Into Election Day
By Danielle Deiseroth and Ethan Winter
As the 2020 election draws to a close, Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden maintains his steady lead over President Donald Trump. In a survey fielded from October 28 to October 29, 2020, Data for Progress asked 1,403 likely voters nationwide about the presidential race and their attitudes towards Biden’s proposal to invest $2 trillion over the next four years in new clean energy jobs and infrastructure projects.
We find that Biden currently holds a double-digit lead over Trump. In addition, we find widespread support for this historic investment in clean energy.
Among all likely voters, Biden leads Trump by a ten-percentage-point margin (54 percent Biden, 44 percent Trump).
We also asked voters about one of Biden’s key campaign plans, a $2 trillion investment over the next four years in new clean energy infrastructure projects. To assess how support for this proposal stands up when faced with opposition arguments, we presented voters with Biden’s messaging about the plan posed against a potential counterattack. We then asked voters to choose which statement they most closely agree with.
A majority of all likely voters (54 percent), including a majority of those who self-identify Democrats (70 percent) and a plurality of those who self-identify as independents (50 percent), think the federal government should make this ambitious investment to transform America into a clean energy economy. While a majority of those who self-identify as Republicans (52 percent) think this investment is wasteful government spending, over a third (37 percent) support this plan, indicating that even some Republican voters support aggressive action to combat climate change.
Election Day is now only three days away and, already, millions of votes have been cast. Throughout a turbulent year that has upended American life, the race for president has been almost remarkably stable. In an election year full of uncertainties, Biden’s steady lead over Trump has been a consistency. Biden has withstood months of attacks from the Trump campaign, and enters the final days of the campaign with more cash on hand than his opponent. Should he win the election, Biden will enter office knowing that voters support his plan to spur job growth after the coronavirus economic downturn and transition America to a clean energy future.
Danielle Deiseroth (@danielledeis) is the Climate Data Analyst for Data for Progress.
Ethan Winter (@EthanBWinter) is an analyst at Data for Progress. You can email him at ethan@dataforprogress.org.
From October 28 to October 29, 2020, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,403 likely voters nationally using web-panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±2.6 percentage points.