OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden continues to lose ground to his chief GOP rival and 2020 opponent, former President Donald Trump, and is now behind in another critical battleground state, according to a new poll.
The new EPIC/MRA poll finds Biden losing to Trump by 5 points, 46-41 percent, after leading Trump by a point in the same survey in August, Newsmax reported on Monday, a 6-point swing in two months’ time.
Meanwhile, former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley trounced Biden by an even bigger amount — 11 points — in the same survey.
Newsmax adds: “Biden pulled just 36% support against Haley and an even great percentage of likely voters were undecided (17%). Meanwhile, 37% of likely Michigan voters had not heard of Haley before, potentially showing her support might amount to merely voting against Biden.”
“Democrats ought to be aware there is a growing possibility that Donald Trump may become president again,” EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn told the Detroit Free Press, per Newsmax.
With 16 electoral votes, Michigan is among the biggest of a handful of crucial swing states that most often decide presidential elections. It is also among the most Democrat-leaning swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The pollster said that according to the survey’s results, Biden’s age and his perceived poor handling of the economy are driving voters to other candidates.
“I think it’s his age and comparative perceptions of him versus Trump,” Porn told the Free Press. “People are dismissing the Bidenomics approach — they’re not impressed with that messaging.”
According to a LendingClub report, some 60 percent of Americans are now living paycheck-to-paycheck as the holiday shopping season approaches, as inflation and gas prices both remain higher than they were when Biden took office.
In addition, the report found that 4 in 10 consumers now consider themselves worse off than they were in 2022, CNBC reported, citing LendingClub’s data.
The report was compiled in October, just a month before the holiday shopping season kicked in.
“This year, holiday spending during the Thanksgiving week may hit a record as consumers try to maximize the weekend’s deals, according to a 2023 Deloitte Black Friday-Cyber Monday survey. Spending over the week is expected to jump 13% from last year, with shoppers shelling out $567 on average, Deloitte found,” CNBC reported.
Meanwhile, according to a separate TD Bank survey, credit card debt has again topped $1 trillion, while “almost all — or 96% — of shoppers said they expect to overspend this season,” CNBC reported, adding:
Half of consumers plan to take on more debt to pay for holiday expenses, another report by Ally Bank found. Only 23% have a plan to pay it off within one to two months.
Some 74% of Americans say they are stressed about finances, according to a separate CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey conducted in August. Inflation, rising interest rates, and a lack of savings contribute to those feelings.
That CNBC survey found that 61% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, up from 58% in March.
In addition, many American households have tapped into their savings over the past few months to get by, according to LendingClub and other reports. More than one-third said they would likely use their savings even more to cover their holiday spending, per LendingClub.
“While consumers have found a way to manage through inflation, it’s concerning that many plan to tap into savings, and even exceed their budgets, to finance their holiday purchases, which may leave them vulnerable to an unexpected emergency,” said Alia Dudum, LendingClub’s money expert, per CNBC.
Late last month, a separate poll showed that only 39 percent of voters in four key swing states—Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina—have confidence in the president’s ability to handle the economy, RealClearPolitics reported.
Of the 39 percent that had a favorable opinion of the president’s handling of the economy, a mere 9 percent said they gave him “strong approval.”
