Trump's RNC polling bounce more about 'subtraction on the Biden side,' pollster suggests

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

published 29 August 2020

President Trump's post-Republican National Convention polling bounce was particularly evident among white and suburban voters, a new Morning Consult poll shows.

Overall, the RNC helped Trump shrink Biden's previously 10-point lead to a six-point advantage, 50 percent to 44 percent. Among suburbanites, Biden led by 14 points after the Democratic National Convention (54 percent to 40 percent), but after the RNC finished, that had dwindled to a 50-42 margin. Trump also increased his lead from two points to eight points among white voters, though his already-dismal prospects among voters of color got slightly worse.

While the results are good news for the Trump campaign, they aren't necessarily that drastic in a larger context. That's because the two conventions are seemingly tied to one another — Biden received a boost in favorability ratings after the DNC, but the numbers went back down to their pre-convention standing after the RNC, which means it was mostly a wash, Morning Consult's Cameron Easley notes. Easley argues the polling suggests something similar when it comes to white and suburban voters in that it was more about Biden losing that extra jolt than Trump surging.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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