Joe Biden takes 14% lead over Donald Trump in NYT/Siena College poll; Democrat leader surges ahead among women, non-white voters

Democrat leader Joe Biden has taken a comfortable lead of 14 percentage points over US president Donald Trump ahead of the national elections in the country, according to a poll by The New York Times and Siena College. According to The New York Times, Biden’s popularity among women and non-white voters has increased, and some traditionally Republican-leaning groups have shifted away from Trump due to his ineffective handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Till Wednesday, the United States has reported 24,41,005 cases of COVID-19 and 1,23,840 deaths due to the viral infection. [caption id=“attachment_8522191” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  File image of Joe Biden. AP[/caption] Biden holds a lead of 22 percent over Trump among women voters, but has only a 3 percent lead over the US president among male voters. Among Black and Hispanic voters, Biden holds a lead of 74 percent and 39 percent, respectively. This is not the first such poll which shows Biden leading over Trump. A _Reuters/Ipsos_ opinion poll conducted in April 2020 about a general election matchup showed 44 percent of registered voters saying they would back Biden in the election, with 40 percent saying they would support Trump. More critical for Trump, a recent poll by Reuters/Ipsos of the three battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania had Biden with a 45 percent-39 percent edge over the president. Trump’s victories in those states in the 2016 US presidential election had helped propel him to the White House. However, Trump told Reuters he does not believe opinion polls and that he does not believe that the election would be a referendum on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. “I don’t believe the polls,” Trump said. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.” “And I don’t mean incompetent because of a condition that he’s got now. I mean he’s incompetent for 30 years. Everything he ever did was bad. His foreign policy was a disaster,” Trump said. Earlier this month, the pollster Gallup showed Trump’s approval rating sliding to 39 percent in a poll taken between 28 May and 4 June — one point below his term average of 40 — from an all-time high of 49 percent the previous months, the best marks voters ever gave his presidency.