Joe Biden leads President Trump in a pair of states that haven’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate in decades, a Fox News poll shows.
According to a survey released Thursday, Biden leads Trump by 45%-44% in Texas and 47%-45% in Georgia. Texas last backed a Democratic presidential nominee in 1976 and Georgia in 1992.
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Both states are within the poll’s 3-percentage point margin of error. But the fact that they’re even competitive shows the challenges Trump faces as he seeks reelection in November amid the coronavirus pandemic and double-digit unemployment.
The Fox News poll, conducted from June 20-23, also found Biden leading Trump in Florida by 9 points and North Carolina by 2 points. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, holds similar leads in other polls taken over the past week.
In Texas, a reliably Republican state since 1980 and one Trump won by 9 points in the 2016 election, voters believe Biden would better handle race relations and the coronavirus pandemic by 10 points and 3 points, respectively.
However, the survey found that voters place greater trust in the president on the economy and immigration by 14 and 3 points, respectively.
The poll surveyed 1,001 Texas voters through landlines and cellphones.
In Florida, a state Trump in 2016 won by 1 point, 58% of Biden voters say their motivation behind their decision is out of fear of Trump’s reelection rather than enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate. Meanwhile, enthusiasm for Trump’s election motivates 69% of his Florida supporters.
Biden’s lead in the state comes primarily from Hispanics, women, and millennials.
In Georgia, which Trump won previously by approximately 5 points, Biden was the overwhelmingly preferred candidate among black voters, millennials, and suburban voters, leading the president by 76 points, 34 points, and 20 points, respectively.
Trump’s approval rating in the state declined by 4 points, with 47% approval and 51% disapproving, and his support among men also declined slightly.
None of the four states surveyed are crucial in piecing together an Electoral College majority of 270 for Biden, vice president for two terms under President Barack Obama and before that, a 36-year Delaware senator. But a loss in any one of them would likely spell electoral doom for Trump.
