And but, the pandemic persevered, and so did the alarm of voters. A current ballot performed by The New York Occasions and Siena Faculty discovered
And but, the pandemic persevered, and so did the alarm of voters. A current ballot performed by The New York Occasions and Siena Faculty discovered that half of doubtless voters believed the worst of the virus was nonetheless forward. By a 15-point margin, voters disapproved of the president’s management on the illness.
Jim Hobart, a Republican pollster, stated that whereas some voters on the precise had turned their consideration away from the coronavirus, the majority of the voters remained targeted on the illness.
“One of many central tensions of the race,” he stated, “is that whereas a majority of the nation is targeted on the coronavirus, conservative Republican voters are extra targeted on the financial system, in addition to what the president refers to as regulation and order.”
Nick Gourevitch, a Democratic pollster conducting monitoring polls concerning the pandemic and the election, stated the virus had by no means slipped from the highest of voters’ minds. In a survey he performed this week, earlier than the announcement of Mr. Trump’s optimistic check, Mr. Gourevitch stated that voters recognized the pandemic as their major concern concerning the president’s management.
“The pandemic was light-years above all the pieces on there,” he stated, including that over the previous six months, “Should you all the time wager on public opinion being on the aspect of concern over well being, you nearly by no means would have been mistaken.”
It should be stated — as a matter of formality, as a lot as the rest — that Mr. Trump’s instincts for political theatrics and racial division, and his willpower to carry onto energy, make it tough to low cost him totally even at this late hour, and whilst he confronts a private medical emergency. And there may be all the time the likelihood that the picture of an ailing president — even an unpopular one — engenders sympathy with some voters.
However with voting underway in quite a few states, together with essential presidential battlegrounds like Wisconsin and North Carolina, he’s working out of time. And for a candidate who has by no means managed to choose a coherent, persuasive message concerning the pandemic, Mr. Trump’s personal medical emergency now stands as a towering impediment to him discovering such an argument within the closing stretch.