Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump in four key battleground states, all of which went for Trump in the 2016 election.

According to a new Fox News poll of registered voters, the former vice president beats Trump handily in the key swing state of Florida and edges him in Georgia, North Carolina, and the huge electoral college prize of Texas. Fox’s polling falls in line with numerous other recent nationwide and swing state polls showing a near double-digit lead for Biden across the country and substantial, but narrower leads in swing states. These discouraging numbers for Trump from have prompted him to slam the polling as “terrible” and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to dismisss national polls as a “colossal waste of time and money” and claim that individual state polls are instead the gold standard.

In Florida, where Trump eked out a one-percentage point victory over Hillary Clinton four years ago, Biden has now built a substantial nine-point lead, 49% – 40%, which is beyond the poll’s margin of error.

Among the other three states, Biden’s lead is much narrower and within the poll’s three-point margin of error. In Georgia, which Trump won by six points in 2016, Biden now leads by two, 47% – 45%. Biden leads by the same numbers in North Carolina, where Trump won by four. And in Texas, a state Trump won by nine points in 2016, Biden now clings to a one-point lead, 45% – 44%.

Biden’s nine-point lead in Florida also represents a six-point increase from Fox’s last state poll in April, where he led Trump 46% –43%. And the poll also found evidence that ran counter to the Trump campaign’s narrative that its voters are more enthusiastic than Biden’s. Among those Florida voters who said they were “extremely” motivated to vote, Biden’s lead grows to 11 points (53% – 42%).

In all, these four states represent 98 Electoral College votes, which if subtracted away from Trump’s 2016 total would leave him with just 208, when 270 are needed to win re-election.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2YBwrdP