Poll: Biden leads Trump by 13 points in Pennsylvania

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has opened up a 13-point lead over President Trump in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the race for the White House.

The latest Quinnipiac University survey of Pennsylvania finds Biden at 54 percent and Trump at 41 percent. Biden led by 8 points in the same poll from September.

Nearly half of voters, 46 percent, said the first presidential debate made them think less of Trump.

A strong majority of voters, 58 percent, disapprove of Trump’s handling of the coronavirus. Fifty-six percent say they disapprove of the overall job Trump is doing as president.

“President Trump comes under further pressure in Pennsylvania where voters give him low marks on decency, empathy and honesty,” said Quinnipiac pollster Mary Snow. “On issues, the pandemic is overshadowing all others right now and voters express more confidence in former Vice President Joe Biden to handle the coronavirus response.”

Trump carried Pennsylvania by less than 1 point in 2016, becoming the first Republican candidate since 1988 to carry the state.

The president has an uphill climb to repeating that victory. Biden leads Trump by 7.1 points in the RealClearPolitics average of Pennsylvania, the largest gap in any of the six core battleground states.

The survey of 1,211 likely voters in Pennsylvania was conducted between Oct. 1 and Oct. 5 and has a 2.8 percentage point margin of error.