With just a few months until Election Day, former President Donald Trump holds a lead over President Joe Biden.
Emerson College poll released New pollreports that Trump is leading Biden 46% to 43%, with 11% undecided.
When undecided voters were asked which candidate they supported, the poll showed a 50-50 split.
Though the polls are balanced, the number of voters who do not intend to support Biden could indicate they are less enthusiastic and therefore less willing to go to the polls on Election Day.
The poll found that 78% of Republicans are “very willing,” compared with 65% of Democrats and 63% of independents.
The poll came after what was widely considered a disastrous debate for the Biden campaign.
Biden’s flubbed and sometimes incoherent speech during the debate sparked widespread disappointment among Democrats, with some calling for him to step down and for the party to nominate a new presidential candidate.
So far, Biden has strongly pushed back against the idea, arguing that he will remain on the ballot and beat Trump.
But since that debate, Trump’s approval rating, which already held significant leads in most battleground states, has risen in most polls.
Latest Emerson vote Biden’s approval rating among independents has fallen over the past month.
“Since before the first presidential debate, former President Trump’s approval rating remains at 46%, while President Biden’s approval rating has dropped by two points,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of the Emerson College Poll, said in a statement.
“The most notable shift away from Biden was among independents, with 42% voting for Trump and 38% voting for Biden. 43% voted for Biden last month and 41% voted for Biden last month.”
The poll showed that when voters were given the opportunity to choose a third-party candidate, Trump’s lead widened slightly, with 44% backing him, 40% backing Biden, 6% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and about 1% each for Cornel West and Jill Stein.
The poll also showed that Biden’s approval rating has fallen two points since last month and that 56% of respondents say foreign policy is worse than when Biden took office.
“Perceptions of the current state of U.S. foreign policy vary by party affiliation, with 48% of Democrats saying foreign policy is better than four years ago, 87% of Republicans saying it is worse, and 54% of independents saying it is worse,” Kimball said.
