President Biden has a clear lead over former President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin, but the Democrat’s head-to-head cushion disappears when minor candidates are included, a new poll indicates.
The Quinnipiac University survey published Wednesday showed Biden with 50% support among registered voters while Trump could only manage 44%.
However, the two-party share of the vote drops below 80% when a trio of third-party candidates are introduced, with Biden receiving 40%, Trump getting 39%, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. receiving 12%, Green Party candidate Jill Stein getting 4% and independent candidate Cornel West coming in at 1%.
Independent candidates have until Aug. 6 to file petitions for ballot access, leaving it unclear how many choices voters will have.
The Badger State has backed a Republican for president just once since 1988 — in 2016, when Trump edged out Hillary Clinton.
Four years later, however, Biden swung the state back in the Democratic column, defeating Trump by just over 20,000 votes out of more than 3.2 million cast.
While the Quinnipiac survey is welcome news for Biden, it is an outlier compared to other polls.
A Marquette University Law School poll published in mid-April showed Trump leading Biden 51% to 49% among registered voters. The Milwaukee institution is thought to be the gold standard for surveying the state’s political attitudes.
RealClearPolitics, meanwhile, shows Trump leading Biden by an average of 0.5 percentage points in the state.
In the Wisconsin Senate race, Quinnipiac shows incumbent Democrat Tammy Baldwin up double-digits on Republican challenger Eric Hovde, with Baldwin coming in at 54% support compared to Hovde’s 42%.
Both Trump and Biden have made a point to campaign in Wisconsin in an effort to sway voters to their side.
The former president has stressed the economy and immigration, while Biden has highlighted his vision of “preserving democracy” and economic achievements.
About one in four Wisconsin voters (24%) said the economy was their top issue, followed by immigration and preserving democracy (20% each).
Meanwhile, anti-Israel protests on college campuses across the country have gotten little traction with Wisconsin voters, half of whom told Quinnipiac they opposed the demonstrations.
However, more than six in 10 voters ages 18-34 (63%) said they supported the protests while 28% said they opposed them.
An even 60% of 18-34-year-olds supporting setting up encampments on college campuses, while just 32% disapproved of the practice.
The Quinnipiac University survey was conducted May 2-6 among 1,457 Wisconsin registered voters, with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.
