Poll gives Donald Trump good news in Georgia, other swing states

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump has boosted voter intention in his favor in swing states, according to a new poll.

A survey on behalf of the British newspaper The Telegraph by Redfield & Wilton Strategies found that 53 percent of eligible voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania think that Trump will win in November.

The paper said this is almost three points more than its polling on July 10, which took place three days before Thomas Crooks shot at Trump from a rooftop near his rally in Pennsylvania.

Voters in Florida, Nevada and Wisconsin were also asked questions on voting intentions in the poll of 5,005 people conducted between July 16 and July 18. The margin of error ranged from 3.46 percent in Georgia to 4.22 percent in Arizona.

Since October, The Telegraph has polled voters in states that candidates must win to get the Electoral College delegates required to take the White House. The latest survey asked voters in Nevada and Wisconsin for the first time.

Trump has typically been ahead in the surveys but over the last six weeks, this margin between him and President Joe Biden has grown bigger, the paper said.

Expectations Trump would win spiked by five points to 50 percent after Biden’s widely panned presidential debate performance on June 27 and this has increased by a further 2.7 points since the assassination attempt, said The Telegraph.

“The image of Trump pumping his fist after the assassination attempt is now burned into the minds of Americans,” said Thomas Gift, director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London, U.K.

“Small wonder why that symbol of defiance is resonating with undecided and swing voters,” he told Newsweek on Saturday.

“Perhaps nowhere can we expect the incident to boost Trump’s support more than the swing state where it happened, Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral votes could determine the outcome in November,” Gift added.

There is growing pessimism about Biden’s candidacy among Democrats, which has prompted a new round of calls from the party’s lawmakers for him to drop out of the race.

Gaffes Biden made at the NATO summit and in interviews have compounded concerns in the Democratic Party that Biden cannot beat Trump. Other findings of the Redfield & Wilton poll, which was shared with Newsweek corroborated this view.

It found that the biggest increase in support for Trump since the last survey was in North Carolina, where there was a four percent uptick in voters-to 45 percent- backing the Republican candidate. There were also gains in support for Trump in Florida and Michigan (three percent and two percent respectively).

Meanwhile, the survey also found that among voters in seven of the eight states polled, Biden has a negative net approval rating-the share of voters who approve of his job performance minus those who disapprove.

The lowest was in North Carolina while the highest was in Georgia (0 percent). By contrast, Trump has a positive net favorability rating among voters in four of the eight states, with the highest recorded in North Carolina (7 percent) and the lowest is in Nevada (-5 percent), according to Redfield & Wilton.

Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Biden campaigns for comment.