President Biden’s lead in the critical state of Wisconsin shrinks to nearly nothing when third-party candidates are included in the race, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
Biden leads Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up by 6 points, 50 percent to 44 percent, according to Quinnipiac’s polling, but that shrinks to just a single point when third-party candidates are included.
“In a country at odds over wars and the economy, abortion, immigration and the very survival of democracy, there is one current point of agreement: there’s no daylight between the candidates. It’s a tie,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said.
In the Quinnipiac University poll of 1,457 registered voters, Biden received 40 percent, compared to 39 percent for Trump and 12 percent for Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein won 4 percent, while Independent candidate Cornel West won 1 percent.
The poll suggests the third-party candidates could be a major factor in a state that has swung from Democrats to Republicans and back to Democrats over the last three presidential elections.
Kennedy is supported by 8 percent of Republicans, 5 percent of Democrats and 20 percent of independents.
Stein is supported by 5 percent of Democrats and 6 percent of independents, while West has the support of 3 percent of independents but statistically no support from Republicans or Democrats.
The poll includes respondents who lean Democratic in the Democratic group and respondents who lean Republican in the Republican group.
According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling average, Biden and Trump are tied, 44.8 percent each.
In a three-way hypothetical race with Kennedy, Trump leads the national polling average by 1.1 percentage points, with 41.2 percent, followed by Biden’s 40.1 percent, and Kennedy’s 8.5 percent.
The Quinnipiac poll was conducted May 2-6. It has a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points.