Biden up by 10 points in new national poll

Democratic nominee Joe Biden holds a 10-point lead over President Trump in a national poll of registered voters released just two days before the election.

Biden leads Trump in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 52 to 42 percent.

Two weeks ago, the former vice president had an 11-point lead, 53 to 42 percent, NBC News reported.

Biden has a combined 6-point edge, 51 to 45 percent, in 12 battleground states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to the poll.

Biden currently holds an 82-point lead among Black voters in the poll, and is ahead of the president by 28 points among voters age 18 to 34, by 23 points among senior citizens, by 20 points among women, by 15 points among white voters with college degrees and independents.

Trump has a 21-point lead among white voters without college degrees and a 6-point edge among white voters.

A majority of those respondents who said they have already voted or plan to vote early sided with Biden while a majority of those who plan to cast their ballots on Election Day back the president, in findings consistent with other surveys.

Pollsters found that 45 percent of voters now approve of Trump’s job performance, while 52 percent disapprove. The gap was 10 points two weeks ago, with 44 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving.

Almost half of registered voters — 48 percent – also said they would prefer that Democrats control Congress. Forty-three percent chose Republicans. The findings were virtually identical to a survey in August, NBC News noted.

Six in 10 respondents also said the country is heading in the wrong direction, while 31 percent said it is going in the right direction.

And a majority — 55 percent — said the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come. About a quarter said the worst of the pandemic is behind us and 15 percent said it’s not a major problem.

The new survey of 1,000 registered voters, conducted Oct. 29 through Oct. 31, has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll aligns with several previous national polls showing Biden leading Trump nationally while maintaining a slight lead in battleground states.

— Justine Coleman contributed to this report, which was last updated at 12:26 p.m.