Poll: Biden neck and neck with Trump in Florida, Arizona

Democratic nominee Joe Biden is leading President Trump in the battleground states of Florida and Arizona, according to a new Reuters-Ipsos poll released Wednesday. 

The survey found the former vice president 4 points ahead in Florida, with Biden garnering 49 percent support and Trump with 45 percent. Biden leads Trump by two points ahead Arizona, registering 48 percent support ahead of Trump’s 46 percent support.

Both of Biden’s leads in the states are within the survey’s margin of error. 

In 2016, Trump won Florida and Arizona by slim margins, with Trump winning the Sunshine State by 1.2 points over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Trump won Arizona by 3.6 points over Clinton.

Should Biden win Arizona in November, he would be the first Democrat to do so since former President Clinton in 1996. 

According to the Reuters poll, 50 percent of Florida participants said Biden would be better at handling the coronavirus, compared to 41 percent who said the same of Trump. 

With regard to COVID-19, Arizona 49 percent of likely voters said that Biden would be better suited to handle the outbreak, with 43 percent saying the same of Trump.

The poll comes just six days after the president was diagnosed with COVID-19. He and other top Republicans have contracted the disease including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, top White House aide Hope Hicks and former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. 

Trump ended coronavirus relief talks Tuesday night, claiming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democrats were not negotiating on a stimulus package in “good faith.” The president later appeared to back track somewhat Wednesday, urging Congress to pass smaller stand-alone bills.  

A recent Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Biden leading by 11 points in Florida with more than 50 percent of the vote.

A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday showed Biden leading Trump by 12 points nationally.

The show of support for Biden comes after a chaotic debate between the president and Biden last Tuesday. During the event in Ohio, moderator and Fox News anchor Chris Wallace struggled to keep the conversation on track and was subjected to numerous interruptions, many of them from Trump himself.

The Reuters-Ipsos opinion polls were conducted online in both Arizona and Florida in English, as well as Spanish.

The Florida survey was conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6, gathering responses from 1,100 adults, including 678 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points. 

The Arizona poll was conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 7, gathering responses from 1,099 adults, including 663 likely voters, and had a credibility interval of 4 percentage points.