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Joe Biden has received a boost among suburban voters as he prepares to face off against Donald Trump in the November general election.
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll has revealed that 57 percent of suburban voters would back President Biden if the election were held today, compared to 41 percent for former President Trump.
The survey of 1,305 adults, conducted between March 25 and 28, also revealed that Biden holds a substantial lead among big city residents, securing 63 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 36 percent.
However, the picture changes substantially in smaller settlement types, with Trump leading in small cities with 54 percent of the vote to Biden's 45 percent, by 59 percent to 39 percent in small towns, and by 60 percent to 39 percent in rural areas.
Overall, the poll revealed that Biden is slightly ahead among registered voters nationwide, securing 50 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 48 percent. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.
Newsweek reached out to Donald Trump for comment on Wednesday outside of normal working hours.
The results come as Biden and Trump secured a series of wins in Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday in New York, Wisconsin, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Despite Trump's comfortable wins in all four states, a substantial proportion of Republican voters backed politicians no longer in the race, including former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, who pulled out in March, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who quit in January. This suggests that anti-Trump sentiment in the GOP is alive, which could prove critical in swing states in November.
According to Associated Press estimates, Trump won 79.2 percent of the vote in Wisconsin, while Haley secured 12.8 percent and DeSantis 3.4 percent. In total, around 108,944 people voted for candidates other than Trump. The former president lost Wisconsin to Biden in the 2020 presidential election by only 20,000 votes, suggesting that even small voting swings could prove critical in November.
In New York, Trump won 82.1 percent of the vote share, compared to 12.9 percent for Haley, 4 percent for Chris Christie and 1 percent for Vivek Ramaswamy.
In Connecticut, 77.9 percent voted for Trump, 13.9 percent for Haley, 4.8 percent uncommitted, and 2.9 percent for DeSantis. In Rhode Island, 84.4 percent voted for Trump, compared with 10.7 percent for Haley, 2 percent uncommitted, and 1.4 percent for DeSantis.
Thomas Gift, a political scientist who heads the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek last week that Trump is "doubtlessly alienating to large swathes of suburbia, which tend have higher concentrations of wealthier and college-educated voters that have broadly turned away from the GOP."
He added: "Trump's insistence on base mobilization at the expense of trying to widen his circle of support leads to a ceiling in his approvals that's most pronounced among upscale, suburban moderates.
"This is partially reflective of a broader realignment in American politics that's seen the GOP become the party of the working class, while skilled, white-collar professionals gravitate increasingly to the Democratic Party."
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About the writer
Matthew Robinson is the Newsweek U.S. News Editor based in London, U.K. His focus is U.S. politics and national news. ... Read more