Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden holds a 5-point lead over President Donald Trump in Michigan heading into the final stretch of the 2020 election, a new WDIV/Detroit News poll shows.
In a head to head matchup of likely November 2020 Michigan general election voters, Joe Biden continues to lead Donald Trump by five points, 47 percent to 42 percent. 1 percent choose a third-party candidate. 7.0 percent of voters are undecided.
These numbers remain statistically unchanged from January 2020, which had Biden at 50 percent and Trump at 43 percent -- a 7 point lead. What remains consistent is that Donald Trump’s support level does not move from the 42 percent level of his name identification, his job approval, and his total vote percentage, the poll finds.
Donald Trump has largely been “stuck in cement” at 42 percent in Michigan for the past four years.
Here are some other key findings from the survey:
- Among Independent voters, the race is statistically even with Trump at 38.8 percent to Biden at 35.0 percent. 14.6 percent of Independent voters are undecided.
- Women support Joe Biden by a margin of 54.1%-35.8% -- an 18.3% lead.
- Men support Donald Trump by a margin of 49.1% - 39.5% -- a 9.6% lead.
- Black voters support Biden by a margin of 94.3%-1.2%.
- White voters support Trump by a margin of 51.0%-38.7%.
- Joe Biden leads among voters over the age of 65 by a margin of 48.9%-41.4%.
- The largest remaining undecided votes come primarily from voters under the age of 40 years old.
Michigan voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of pandemic
- Overall, President Trump holds a 43.7 percent approval rating with Michigan voters, and a 52.5 percent disapproval.
- 53.7 percent disapprove of President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 42.2 percent approve.
Biden leads Trump on 4 of 5 key issues
Voters were read five different issue areas and asked which candidate would do a better job handling that issue. Joe Biden holds leads on four of the five issues including a 7.7% lead on handling the pandemic and 21.5% lead on improving race relations. Donald Trump’s only advantage, by a narrow four-point margin is on the economy.
METHODOLOGY
The Glengariff Group, Inc. conducted a Michigan statewide survey of November 2020 likely general election voters. The 600 sample, live operator telephone survey was conducted on September 1-3, 2020 and has a margin of error of +/-4.0% with a 95% level of confidence. 50.0% of respondents were contacted via landline telephone. 50.0% of respondents were contacted via cell phone telephone. This survey was commissioned by WDIV Local 4 News and the Detroit News.