Amid the global Coronavirus pandemic, American Democratic politicians are still battling it out on who will run against President Donald Trump in November’s Presidential Election. And with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders pulling out of the race last week after – reportedly being convinced by Barack Obama to drop out – the stage looks all but set for former Vice President Joe Biden to go up against President Trump – and the US 2020 Election betting odds are more-or-less neck-and-neck between the pair. But, who will come out on top? Read on as we take an in-depth look.
As things stand, Biden, who is running for president for the third time in as many decades, holds a slight lead over Trump – with an average of six points in national live-interview polls of registered voters. However, still, the bookmakers make Trump the very slight favourite, and that is because registered voters across the United States will not decide the outcome of the election – meaning Biden’s lead is theoretically all but non-existent.
There is no doubt that the election – which is seven months away – will be just as competitive as its predecessor in 2016, when Trump beat his democratic counterpart Hillary Clinton, despite not getting the majority of the individual votes. And with Obama, seemingly, getting other Democratic candidates to drop out early to get the party to rally behind Biden and stop a repeat of the 2016 election – when Clinton blamed the defeat partly on Sanders staying in the running for too long – it looks like the Democrats are ready to take control and “accelerate the endgame” as the former president called it.
Meanwhile, Trump has the full support of his Republican party and the backing of the white working class, of course – these are the people who powered him over the line for a shock victory in 2016. In polls conducted since mid-March, the current president has a strong lead of 61% to 32% among white voters without a college degree – a similar margin which he held over Clinton.
On the other hand, Biden strikes back with the majority of white voters with a college degree, with a lead of 55-44 – a similar margin held by Clinton amongst that group four years ago – whilst the Democratic candidate will also certainly hold the majority of votes amongst non-white voters.
However, with Trump still holding his lead in white working-class Rust Belt states – that were pivotal to his victory over Clinton – it begs the question that the Democrats could, again, gain the most individual votes but lose the vote with Trump being re-elected to the White House.
Of course, with the Coronavirus outbreak still sweeping across the States, a lot could change over the next seven months. President Trump has received a lot of criticism for his handling of the pandemic, with claims that he acted too slowly to the stop the spread of the virus, whilst he also recently stopped funding the World Health Organisation (WHO), saying: “I am directing my administration to halt funding while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.”
This has also attracted criticism with Germany’s foreign minister claiming that supporting WHO was one of the best investments that could be made, whilst Bill Gates also vented his frustration tweeting: “The world needs WHO now more than ever.”
Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds. Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever.
— Bill Gates (@BillGates) April 15, 2020
In conclusion, the septuagenarians may be neck-and-neck now, but how they deal with the twists and turns over the coming months could be decisive to the outcome.
