Biden opens up dominant 16-point national lead in new CNN poll

(Image credit: Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 6 October 2020

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has opened up a lead of 16 percentage points over President Trump nationwide in a CNN/SSRS poll of likely voters released Tuesday morning. Biden's lead, 57 percent to 41 percent, is an increase from previous polls, but since this is CNN's first national poll of likely voters this election, companions aren't exact. The poll was conducted Oct. 1-4, after the first presidential debate and mostly after Trump's COVID-19 diagnosis was made public.

Other national and state polls have also registered an uptick in support for Biden since the debate. His lead in the RealClearPolitics average has grown to 8.5 points, 50.7 percent to 42.2 percent for Trump, and 8.2 points in the FIveThirtyEight national average, 51 percent to 42.7 percent; FiveThirtyEight also current gives Biden 81 in 100 odds of winning the Electoral College.

Biden beats Trump on every issue in the CNN/SSRS poll, including handling of the economy, though only by a narrow 2 points. Biden's favorability rating has risen to 52 percent, versus 39 parent for Trump, but "the president's core supporters remain as supportive of him as they have been, if not more," CNN reports. "Trump does not appear to have made any gains among the groups his campaign needs to attract in order to dent Biden's longstanding lead."

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While 86 percent of Americans said the loser of the race has an obligation to concede once the results are certified, only 78 percent of Trump supporters agreed, down 5 points from August, and 58 percent of all voters said they don't expect Trump to accept the results and concede, versus 71 percent who predicted Biden would do so.

The poll surveyed a random sample of 1,001 likely voters via landline and its margin of sampling error is ± 3.6 percentage points.

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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.