Both Trump, Biden can handle economic recovery well: Poll

Likely voters in six battleground states – Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – are equally divided over whether US President Donald Trump or Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden would do a better job handling the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of the latest “States of Play” poll by CNBC and Change Research.

The poll, which was conducted August 7-9, finds that across the battleground states as a whole Biden leads Trump (48% to 44%) among likely voters, however.

Moreover, Biden holds the lead over Trump in majority of the battleground states, leading in five of the six states, with notable strength being in Florida, Trump’s second home. Biden leads Trump by six points in Florida.

The president leads Biden by one point in North Carolina.

According to a press release US and Global News received from NBCUniversal, the owner of CNBC, over 2,700 possible general election voters from the six states and over 2,100 likely general election voters nationally were polled. The purpose of the survey was to determine economic sentiment, including one related to economic recovery, among voters.

Forty-six percent of the likely voters approve of the job President Trump is doing.

When asked who would do a better job handling the pandemic, 53% said Biden or Democrats, while 47% said the president or Republicans. However, when it comes to who can better handle crime, Trump leads Biden 51% vs. 49%.

Sixty-six percent of the voters say they are seeing costs rising for supplies in store and online. When it comes to overall economy and cost of living, the same percent (66%) of the voters rate both as “not so good”/”poor.” Of the voters who make under $50k, almost half say they are spending money they had been saving.

Other key findings of the poll include:

Of the likely voters, 38% are more likely to vote by mail and 36%, in person. Almost 60% of Republicans said they would vote in person, while just 13% of Democrats said that. On the other hand, 64% of Democrats said they would vote by mail, while just 14% of Republicans said that.

Image "Trump and Biden" by uwwvmzjh8 is licensed under CC PDM 1.0 (Public Domain Image)