Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg are the biggest threats to President Trump in Michigan, with the former vice president and billionaire businessman showing the largest leads of Democratic presidential hopefuls in head-to-head general election match-ups against the president in the crucial swing state.
A Glengariff Group poll of 600 likely Michigan voters found that Biden bested Trump by 7 points, 50% to 43%. Bloomberg had a 6-point lead over Trump, 47% to 41%, with much of his support coming from male and independent voters. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
Bloomberg entered the race late and is not competing in the first four nominating contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, instead pursuing an unconventional strategy to court voters nationwide and in delegate-rich states. He spent more than $100 million on advertisements during the first month of his self-funded bid and will spend $10 million on a Super Bowl ad. He sits in fifth place in RealClearPolitics’s average of national primary polls with 5.8% support.
Other Democratic candidates beat Trump in the match-ups by narrower margins. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders led by 4 points, 49% to 45%, while both Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg led Trump by 2 points — Warren 46% to 44%, and Buttigieg 45% to 43%.
Glengariff Group founder Richard Czuba warned that Warren has “particularly weak” support from male voters.
“She has real problems with the independents who are going to decide the election,” Czuba said.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by a razor-thin margin of 10,704 votes, less than a quarter of a percent of the total vote.
