Poll: Biden leads Trump by 5 points in Wisconsin

by Max Greenwood - 10/07/20 1:47 PM ET

Former Vice President Joe Biden leads President Trump by 5 points in Wisconsin, according to a new poll from Marquette University Law School.

The survey shows Biden garnering 46 percent support among likely Wisconsin voters to Trump’s 41 percent. Another 4 percent said they are backing Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen.

The poll is the latest to suggest trouble for Trump in a state that he carried in 2016 by less than 23,000 votes.

It suggests that the presidential race in Wisconsin has remained stable since a similar Marquette University Law School survey was released last month, despite a whirlwind of developments, including the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first presidential debate and Trump’s hospitalization from the coronavirus.

Last month’s poll showed Biden leading 48 percent to 44 percent among likely voters in the Badger State.

In the most recent survey, a slight majority of respondents — 51 percent — said that they believe the Senate should wait until after the presidential election next month to vote on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, while 44 percent said that senators should move forward with the confirmation process.

Barrett’s nomination to the seat previously held by Ginsburg has emerged as a flashpoint in the battle for political control in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has vowed to hold a swift vote despite pleas from Democrats to wait until after the election.

The Marquette poll also found that roughly twice as many respondents believe Biden performed better than Trump in the first presidential debate last week. Forty-one percent said that Biden had the better debate performance, while only 20 percent said Trump did. Another 14 percent said both candidates did poorly.

The debate has been widely panned as a chaotic event, defined by frequent outbursts by Trump.

The Marquette University Law School poll surveyed 805 registered voters in Wisconsin, including 700 likely voters, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. It has a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points for the entire sample and 4.6 percentage points for the sample of likely voters.