Name: Biden begins to pull away in Pennsylvania
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Biden begins to pull away in Pennsylvania

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The former veep has a healthy lead over Donald Trump in a handful of recent high-quality polls.Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden arrives at New Castle Airport on Oct. 6 after holding campaign events in Miami. | AP Photo/Andrew HarnikPHILADELPHIA — With 28 days till the election, Pennsylvania is looking further and further out of reach for President Donald Trump.Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is ahead by 12 percentage points among registered voters here, according to a new survey of the critical battleground state.A published Tuesday reports that a majority of Pennsylvania registered voters, 54 percent, back Biden, while 42 percent prefer President Donald Trump. Among likely voters, Biden beats Trump by 8 to 11 percentage points, depending on voter turnout.The survey is one of several high-quality polls in recent weeks that have given Biden a healthy lead in Pennsylvania — a bad sign for Trump, especially since it is widely seen as the tipping-point state in the Electoral College.“Everyone should be very skeptical of any single poll result, even the best poll. But there are just an awful lot of polls that are telling pretty much the same story,” said J.J. Balaban, a Pennsylvania-based Democratic strategist. “The story is that Trump has failed to define Biden as unacceptable in the state of Pennsylvania. He has not grown his support, and he is deeply unpopular in the largest media market in the state.”Biden is powered by a foothold in the state’s top 10 swing counties from 2016, which span from the Philadelphia suburbs to northwestern Pennsylvania. He has also grown his margins among voters of color and is virtually tied with Trump among white voters. The former vice president also benefits from the fact that voters trust him to manage the coronavirus pandemic over Trump by a striking 20 points.The double-digit edge for Biden in the Monmouth survey comes after of the same poll showed him with an advantage of just 4 percentage points over Trump among Pennsylvania voters, 49-45 percent.A released this week found Biden with a lead of 49-42, while a put Biden in first 51-44. Recent polls by FOX News and ABC News/Washington Post have painted a similar picture.The spate of good news for Biden has given him a boost in public polling averages in the state. According to a of Pennsylvania surveys conducted from Sept. 24-Oct. 5, Biden is 6.5 percentage points ahead of Trump.That’s a shift from early September, when Biden led Trump by only 3.2 points in Pennsylvania in polling averages over Labor Day weekend — down from a high of about 8 points in July. Instead of tightening as it did then, the race now appears to be shifting further in Biden’s direction in public surveys.Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said Biden has benefited from two trends in recent weeks.“The key here is swing voters in places that were pretty close four years ago. What we’re seeing is that Biden is picking up among a group of voters that either sat out in 2016 or really are just not tied to a strong partisan identity. He’s got some momentum there with them. They’re looking at pocketbook issues,” he said. “[That’s] combined with what appears to be a solidifying of the Democratic base, particularly African American voters.”The Monmouth poll also discovered that the race essentially remained static in the days before and after Trump revealed that he tested positive for the coronavirus.Trump’s top allies in Pennsylvania dismissed the latest polls, pointing to their record in 2016, when then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton led in almost every survey in the state.“The polls are just so wrong, and they’re never going to get them right because they don’t know why they got them wrong in the first place,” said former Rep. Lou Barletta, an early supporter of Trump’s in 2016.Many Democratic elected officials and strategists in the state are also reluctant to believe that Biden is ahead by double digits after 2016. They largely see Biden as currently winning, but by a smaller margin.Contrary to public polls, some private surveys taken before Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis and the first debate have shown the race becoming closer in Pennsylvania, though Biden is still leading, according to Democrats familiar with the polls.Trump Pennsylvania by less than 1 percentage point in 2016, an upset victory over Clinton. His ability to flip that state, as well as the two Midwestern battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin, enabled him to securing his Electoral College success.But Biden, a native of Scranton, Pa., has with the state’s suburbanites and seniors who voted for Trump four years ago.The Monmouth University poll was conducted Sept. 30-Oct. 4, surveying 500 Pennsylvania voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.President Donald including Anthony Fauci during a fiery campaign call. Trump had previously — a virus for which .

The former veep has a healthy lead over Donald Trump in a handful of recent high-quality polls.Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden arrives at New Castle Airport on Oct. 6 after holding campaign events in Miami. | AP Photo/Andrew HarnikPHILADELPHIA — With 28 days till the election, Pennsylvania is looking further and further out of reach for President Donald Trump.Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is ahead by 12 percentage points among registered voters here, according to a new survey of the critical battleground state.A published Tuesday reports...

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QUINT FORGEY

Quint is a breaking news reporter for POLITICO. Quint previously worked as a digital producer and editorial intern for POLITICO, a freelancer and news intern for The Wall Street Journal, an associate producer for Louisiana Public Broadcasting, a reporting intern for The News Journal in Delaware, and a national reporting fellow for the Carnegie-Knight News21 program.

https://www.politico.com/staff/quint-forgey

Quint Forgey

Politico, known originally as The Politico, is an American political journalism company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally. It distributes content through its website, television, printed newspapers, radio, and podcasts. Its coverage in Washington, D.C. includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, the media, and the presidency.

Biden begins to pull away in Pennsylvania

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