Biden Posts Gains With Voters in Ohio, Nevada and Pennsylvania

(CN) — In a stunner of a poll released Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden currently leads President Donald Trump in Ohio and two other states — and all three could prove crucial in deciding the outcome of November’s election.

As both candidates enter the final few weeks before Election Day, all eyes are on a series of critical battleground states that will likely determine who claims victory come November. According to the Fox News poll, Ohio, Nevada and Pennsylvania have begun to shift in Biden’s favor.

The race in Ohio stands as the tightest in Thursday’s poll but represents a slight edge for the former vice president in a state that’s been reliably red for years. Biden leads the president by 5 points in the Buckeye State, 50%-45%, polling well among women and non-white voters. Trump continues to do well among white and rural voters in all three states and holds a small edge overall among male Ohioans.

In Nevada, a state Trump lost to Hillary Clinton four years ago, Biden currently leads the president by 11 points, 52%-41%, thanks to overwhelming support — 30 points over Trump — from Hispanic voters. Biden also leads in the Silver State among voters under 35, women voters and seniors.

Trump, for his part, manages to hold a two-point lead over Biden among white Nevada voters, as well as holds small leads among white voters without a college degree and rural voters.

The candidates see a similar story in Pennsylvania where Biden leads Trump by seven points, 51%-44%, with strong support among non-white voters, women and suburbanites. Pennsylvania’s numbers are notable given Trump won the Keystone State albeit narrowly four years ago.

“Trump’s surprise 2016 win in Pennsylvania was driven by his mobilization of voters in the northern and central regions of the state,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw with the release of the poll. “He needs that kind of support again and a slight tick-up among suburban voters to pull even here.”

Pollsters also asked voters in the three states to gauge which candidate they feel is best equipped to manage some of the major crises and issues the United States faces today. Many throw their support behind Biden.

Regarding the coronavirus, most voters said they trust Biden to do a better job at managing the pandemic than Trump, with Biden leading Trump by double-digits in this regard in all three of the polled states. The poll also found a plurality of voters believe that Covid-19 is “not at all” under control in the United States.

A majority of voters in all three states also say they believe Biden will do a better job of filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. A smaller majority say they believe Biden can do a better job on the issue of policing and criminal justice.

Trump, as has been the case in previous polls, continues to do well on the issue of the economy, with slim majorities of voters in each state saying they prefer the president on this issue over Biden.

On the issue of his overall job approval, however, Trump remains in the red. Majorities of voters in each of three states polled say they disapprove of the job he has done in office, including a majority of voters who feel that way in Ohio — a state Trump won by roughly 8 points in 2016.

As voters prepare to cast their ballots in an election fundamentally changed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Thursday’s poll found that which candidate voters prefer seems to corelate with how they plan to vote. The poll reports that most voters who support Trump say they plan to cast their ballots in person, while majorities of voters who support Biden say they intend to vote by mail.

Regardless of which candidate voters support, nearly 9 in 10 of voters across the political spectrum say are either very or extremely interested in the upcoming presidential contest.

Thursday’s poll was conducted in interviews with 810 likely voters in Nevada, 830 likely voters in Ohio, and 856 likely voters in Pennsylvania and contains a 3% margin of error in each state.

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