Trump polling ahead of Biden in Michigan as president campaigns in crucial battleground state
Former President Donald Trump leads President Biden in the swing state of Michigan, according to a poll released on the same day the Democratic incumbent visited a bellwether county in the Mitten State.
The Quinnipiac University poll out Thursday showed Trump, 77, leading Biden, 81, by 48% to 45%, with 3% saying they were undecided, 2% saying they wouldn’t vote, and 1% saying they would support someone else. The remaining 2% declined to answer the question.
In a five-way race, Trump has 41% support, while Biden has 36% support. Independent Robert F. Kennedy received 10% support among registered voters, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein received 4% support and fellow independent Cornel West got 3%.
Another 5% of registered voters said they were either undecided or refused to take part in the poll.
The Kennedy campaign says it is gathering the 12,000 signatures necessary to qualify for the Michigan ballot, while Stein has automatic ballot access as a party nominee.
“We are actively working on securing independent ballot access in Michigan, supported by a dedicated team of volunteers,” a spokesman for the West campaign told The Post.
Biden traveled to Saginaw Thursday to meet with campaign supporters and volunteers.
The city of around 45,000 is the seat of Saginaw County, the only one in Michigan to to have backed the winning candidate in the last four election cycles.
After voting for the Republican candidate in five elections between 1972 and 1988, Michigan has gone in the Democratic column ever since — with the exception of 2016, when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 0.2 percentage points, or fewer than 11,000 votes out of more than 4.5 million ballots cast.
Biden overwhelmingly won the Feb. 27 Michigan Democratic primary, but more than 100,000 voted “uncommitted” in protest of his administration’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas.
The Quinnipiac poll shows Biden’s approval rating underwater in Michigan, with 39% having a positive impression of his job performance and 57% having a negative view.
A majority of Michigan voters also disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy (56%), the crisis at the US-Mexico border (60%) and the war in the Middle East (60%).
Michigan was the launching point of the “Abandon Biden” movement over the president’s support for Israel, and 27% of voters said in the survey that their sympathies lie with the Palestinians rather than the Israelis.
But 39% of respondents said they sympathize with Israel and 34% did not share their opinion.
A plurality of voters (36%) said the US was doing too little to provide humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, 31% said it esd doing the right amount and 16% said it was doing too much.
Notably, a slight majority (51%) also disapprove of Biden’s response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, which entered its third year at the end of the last month.
Trump’s electoral edge is driven in part by the former president winning 46% of Michigan’s self-described independent voters, while 42% said they would cast their ballot for Biden.
It’s also in keeping with other polls showing Trump is favored to tackle the issues most pressing for voters. In the Quinnipiac poll, 26% of Michigan independents list the economy as their top priority and 18% said immigration.
Overall, 21% of Michigan voters listed the economy as the most urgent issue facing the country and another 21% said immigration was most important.
The top concern among registered Michigan voters was “preserving democracy,” with 22% saying that was their most urgent issue and 77% of that cohort supporting Biden.
Trump led Biden among Michigan voters who said the economy was the most urgent issue facing the US 53% to 16%, while just 3% of those who said immigration was the most urgent issue to them favored Biden — and 86% went for Trump.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of voters surveyed said the state of the nation’s economy was “not so good” or “poor”, whereas 35% described it as “excellent” or “good.”
A plurality of 47% also said the economy is getting worse, while 28% said it was staying about the same and 23% said it was getting better.
At the same time, 61% of Michigan voters said their personal financial situation was excellent or good, while just 38% said it was not so good or poor, a contrast Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy called “a head scratcher.”
Most Michigan voters also favor abortion laws similar to their state, with 66% favoring legal abortions in all or most cases and 28% preferring the procedure to be illegal in most or all circumstances.
A majority of Michigan voters (51%) oppose their Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, running for president in the future, the survey also shows, while 41% were in favor of her making a bid.
Among Democrats, however, 79% said they would like Whitmer — a near-vice presidential pick for Biden in 2020 — to run for president. Just 13% disagreed.
The Quinnipiac poll surveyed 1,487 self-identified registered voters in Michigan March 8-12, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points.
