Biden lead over Trump narrows after Republican National Convention: poll

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s national polling lead over President Trump has shrunk after this week’s Republican National Convention, according to a new Morning Consult survey released Saturday. 

The Morning Consult poll, conducted Friday, showed Biden leading with 50 percent support among likely voters, compared with 44 percent for Trump, with another 7 percent undecided. That’s a narrower margin than the 52-42 lead he had in the same poll on Aug. 23, the day before the Republican Convention kicked off. 

The narrowing stands in contrast with a similar poll conducted after last week’s Democratic National Convention, which showed that Biden’s lead over Trump was statistically unchanged. Biden still holds a larger lead over Trump than Hillary Clinton did after the 2016 conventions.

The apparent convention polling bump comes at a crucial time for the president, who is trying to make up ground in national and swing state polls in the final sprint to Election Day. Other surveys have shown Biden with strong leads, though his margins have been narrowing in recent weeks.

The four-day GOP confab was heavily focused on casting Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), his running mate, as stooges of the far left of the Democratic Party who would exacerbate ongoing protests over racial inequities, leading to violence in the suburbs. It also worked to interweave speeches from family members and supporters of color who cast Trump as an understanding man who is not the racist Democrats say he is.

The convention appeared to boost Trump’s standing with key constituencies, cutting Biden’s lead with suburban voters from 14 points to 8 points and expanding Trump’s lead among white voters from 2 points to 8 points. However, Biden’s lead among Black and Hispanic voters grew. 

The Morning Consult poll surveyed 4,035 likely voters Friday and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.