Poll: Biden widens lead over Trump to 10 points

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has built a double-digit lead over President Trump in his bid for the White House, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

The survey, released Sunday, found that 53 percent of registered voters favor Biden in a head-to-head match-up against Trump, while 43 percent support the president. The 10-point lead represents a significant improvement for Biden from a Post-ABC News poll released in March, which found the former vice president in a statistical tie with Trump. 

That survey showed Biden with 49 percent support and Trump with 47 percent support. 

Despite Biden’s considerable lead, the poll indicated that Trump still enjoys enthusiasm from his supporters. Among the registered voters who were leaning toward voting for the president, 87 percent said they would definitely vote for him in November. Of the voters who were leaning toward Biden, 68 percent said they would definitely vote for him. Meanwhile, 90 percent of Trump-leaning voters say they are enthusiastic about supporting Trump, with 69 percent saying they are “very enthusiastic.”

For Biden, 76 percent of his supporters said they are enthusiastic about voting for him in November. Just 34 percent said they are “very enthusiastic.”

But the public’s approval of Trump and the job he is doing handling the coronavirus outbreak has dipped in recent months. Just 45 percent of U.S. adults said they approved of Trump’s performance in the White House, while 53 percent said they disapproved of it. 

Fifty-three percent of respondents said they disapproved of the president’s handling of the pandemic. In March, following the first weeks of the outbreak, 51 percent said they approved of Trump’s response to the health crisis. 

Neither candidate enjoys favorable ratings from a majority of Americans, according to the poll. Forty-six percent of respondents said they viewed the likely Democratic nominee positively, while 48 percent said they viewed him unfavorably. 

Meanwhile, 42 percent said they had a favorable view of Trump, with 55 percent saying they had an unfavorable view of him. 

The poll comes as Biden and Trump continue to conduct an entirely virtual 2020 campaign due to the coronavirus outbreak. It remains unclear when in-person campaign events will resume. 

Recent polls indicate that Biden holds a clear advantage over the president. A RealClearPolitics average of polling also has the former vice president leading Trump by 5.9 percentage points.

The Post-ABC News poll was conducted between May 25 and May 28 among a national sample of 1,001 adults. The margin of error for overall results is 3.5 percentage points. The margin of error for the 835 registered voters sampled is 4 percentage points.