Joe Biden currently looks like the best candidate to help Democrats recapture the Rust Belt, according to a new poll released Thursday.
A Quinnipiac survey found that registered voters in Ohio prefer the former vice president over President Trump by eight points — at 50% to 42%. Virtually every other major Democratic candidate like Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg are all in statistical ties with the president.
Since Trump won the state in 2016, many Democratic strategists have written off Ohio as safely red. Still, Biden’s strong favorability rating in the state may provide hope that Democrats can win back other states with large white, working-class populations like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in 2020.
“Biden runs best against President Trump in every Quinnipiac University state poll so far,” Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “To get reelected, Trump will need to win the industrial Midwest. Ohio certainly is key to that plan.”
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