Former Vice President Joe Biden (right) has not said if he will run for former President Barack Obama’s (left) old position in 2020.
Poll Says Biden Would Beat Trump in 2020; But Less Popular Than Generic Democratic Presidential Nominee
A recent poll shows that former Vice President Joe Biden would hypothetically beat President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election by seven percentage points.
Polling a plurality of potential voters, 44 percent say they would vote for former Vice President Biden, while 37 percent say that they would vote to re-elect President Trump.
Biden seems more popular with millennial voters than the current president with 53 percent voicing support for Biden, while only 23 percent of millennials voiced support for a second term for Trump.
However, Trump enjoys more popularity with White voters than the ex vice president under former President Barack Obama.
Forty-three percent of White voters would support Trump, while 39 percent of White voters polled would support Biden in 2020.
Unfortunately for Biden, his support has waned since November 2017.
Polls taken at the end of last year showed that Biden had a nine-percentage point lead over Trump, which is now down by two percentage points.
Further complicating things for Biden is the fact that a generic Democratic candidate would outperform Biden in an election against Trump, beating the incumbent by 13 percent.
That 13-percentage point advantage has basically stayed the same over the past year.
The same poll from last year showed that approximately 48-49 percent of voters would vote for the Democratic presidential nominee.
On the contrary, that same poll showed that 34-35 percent of voters would support Trump’s potential re-election bid.
“Notably, 89 percent of Democrats say they would vote for a generic Democrat over Trump, but only 80 percent of Democrats say they prefer Biden over Trump,” explained Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult Managing Director.
Biden who has not made a decision on the 2020 presidential election also has not ruled out running for the White House for the third time.
The former senator from Delaware ran for president, unsuccessfully in 1988 and 2008.
Biden is currently 75 years old, while Trump is 72 years old.
Recent polling also shows some promising signs for at least one aspect of Trump’s recent policy on tariffs.
Trump is receiving bipartisan support for his plan to send aid to farmers adversely affected by his tariffs.
Fifty seven percent of voters support giving aid to farmers, while 26 percent of voters disapproves of giving farmers aid.
The plan to give aid enjoys the support of 79 percent of Republicans and 48 percent of Democrats.
“President Trump’s decision to provide aid to farmers hurt by the trade war is a hugely popular move with rural voters,” Sinclair added. “Sixty-three percent of rural voters support the assistance. Additionally, 30 percent of this group ‘strongly’ approve of Trump’s job performance overall.”
If Biden does run for president for the third time in 2020, one would obviously have to speculate about what his platform would consist of.
But if his past is any indication, foreign policy issues will be at the top of his priority list.
And Biden has the foreign policy credentials to back that up if he does run for office.
The former vice president worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before becoming Obama’s right hand man.
One thing that held Biden back in 2008 and 1998 was lack of name recognition.
His eight years as vice president alleviates that problem.
Additionally, Biden received criticism for voting to authorize the Iraq War and then becoming a vocal critic of former President George W. Bush’s handling of that war.
Now that the controversial Iraq War is not a point of serious contention on the political stage, Biden will not face the same amount of scrutiny for that decision as he did while seeking the Oval Office in 2008.
Biden now leans to the left on many issues, supporting same sex marriage and voting against President Bush’s selections for the Supreme Court, Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.
And in 2006, Biden concurred with the Democratic Party stand on 91 percent of Senate votes that pitted the majority of Democratic senators against Republican senators.
Although Biden now leans left, his reputation decades ago of being a centrist might hurt him as many young Democrats are leaning hard to the left.
Biden still faces criticism from the left for his handling of Justice Clarence Thomas’ Supreme Court confirmation and his vote for the 2005 bankruptcy bill.
He also came out against a universal basic income, which might make him unpopular with younger progressives.
If Trump wins re-election, he will probably focus on the economy while campaigning.
The economy has grown 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the highest growth since 2014 during the Obama administration.
However, critics say that growth has not trickled down to regular middle class Americans and has not shown up in wages.
Many economists say that the growth has only benefitted those at the top and is not evenly distributed amongst all Americans.
Some political pundits believe that race will play a major role in the 2020 presidential election as it has in the last few elections.
Scott Lemieux of NBCNews.com says that Trump’s biggest hope for re-election in 2020 will be what got him, surprisingly to some, elected in 2016, which is appealing to White Americans without college degrees.
Lemieux says that Trump managed to convince many White voters without college degrees in swing states because he was able to play to the fears of many who hold views of White supremacy and believed their country was being taken over by minorities.
White rebellion against the Democratic Party helped Trump pull off the upset victory over Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Lemieux believes that White educated liberals have to realize that many people in the country still hold on to views of White supremacy.
Trump was able to play on people’s fears by insisting that Obama was not born in the United States and therefore disqualified from being the president.
He was also able to play on people’s fears by labeling Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers when he announced his candidacy for the Oval Office.
But regardless of what the polls say in 2018, the 2020 presidential election will be hotly contested as Democrats try to make Trump a one-term commander-in-chief.
