Biden enters convention with a moderately shrinking lead over Trump, polls find

Joe Biden
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden enters his virtual nominating convention ahead of President Trump, but the race has tightened either a little bit or a lot in three polls released Sunday and Monday morning. The most dramatic shift was in CNN's poll, which had Biden leading Trump by just 4 percentage points among registered voters, 50 percent to 46 percent, down from a 14-point lead in June. In 15 battleground states, CNN and SSRS found, Biden is ahead by just 1 point, 49 percent to 48 percent.

Biden maintained a wider lead in a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday and a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll on Sunday. In the Washington Post/ABC poll, Biden has a 12-point advantage among both registered voters and voting-age adults, 53 percent to 41 percent. Biden led by 15 points in the same poll in July. The WSJ/NBC recorded Biden with a 9-point lead, 50 percent to 49 percent, versus his 11-point lead last month. FiveThirtyEight gives Biden an 8.4-point lead in its polling average, 51.3 percent to 42.9; RealClearPolitics has Biden up 7.5 points, 49.8 percent to 42.3 percent.

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The CNN/SSRS poll, which has swung wildly this year, was conducted Aug. 12-15 among 987 registered voters contacted by phone, and its margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points, or ±5.4 points for the 15 battleground states. The Washington Post/ABC News poll contacted 1,001 adults including 868 registered voters by phone Aug. 12-15 and its margin of error was ±4 points for registered voters. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll involved 900 registered voters contacted Aug. 9-12, and its margin of error is ±3.27 points.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.