Democratic nominee Joe Biden led President Trump by 8 percentage points in Michigan in mid-September, according to a new survey from one of the state’s veteran nonpartisan pollsters.
The EPIC-MRA poll of likely Michigan voters, conducted Sept. 10-15, showed Biden leading Trump 48% to 40%, continuing a trend of positive data for the former vice president in this key Midwestern battleground. Sixty-seven percent of Michigan voters believe the United States is on the wrong track; just 27% believe the country is headed in the right direction.
However, EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn told the Detroit Free Press that the percentage of black voters who are undecided or plan to vote third-party, 21%, could be a warning sign for Biden. “That could be very troublesome for the Biden campaign and the Democrats,” Porn said, although he cautioned that the sample of black voters in his survey was too small to be a reliable indicator. In the survey, Biden led Trump among black people 76% to 3%.
[Read more: Trump fights to prove 2016 Michigan win not a fluke]
Meanwhile, Biden’s healthy lead over Trump is not translating into similar results for Sen. Gary Peters. The Democratic incumbent leads Republican challenger John James, who is black, by just 4 points, 45% to 41%, with 14% undecided or planning to support a third-party candidate. Among other interesting findings in the poll:
- Seventy-five percent believe “systemic racism is a serious problem”
- Support for Black Lives Matter is split at 48% approve, 45% disapprove
- Thirty-seven percent support local communities redirecting police funding to other agencies; 57% oppose doing so
- Sixty-seven percent are concerned they or a family member could become infected by the coronavirus
- Eighty-six percent wear protective face masks as required by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order
