Reuters/Ipsos Core Political Survey: General Election Tracker (10/14/2020)

Washington, DC,  October 14, 2020 –   The latest Reuters/Ipsos Core Political shows that President Donald Trump continues to lag behind Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden in the election for president. Overall, Trump’s approval rating remains immovable with consistent support from his Republican base. A majority of Americans are concerned that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Many Americans believe the economy, jobs, healthcare, and coronavirus are the most important issues the nation faces.

Biden receives a majority of support from likely voters (51%) when asked who they would vote for or whom they have already voted for. Forty-one percent of likely voters support Trump in the election for president.

• With voting currently underway in many states and less than three weeks until Election Day, just four percent of likely voters say they are not sure who they would vote for in the election, while four percent say they are supporting a third-party candidate.

About two in five Americans approve of the job Trump is doing as president (42%). This number has remained remarkably stable for nearly his entire presidency.

• Partisanship determines how Americans perceive Trump’s performance. Democratic registered voters are extremely critical of the president, with just eight percent approving, while Republican registered voters overwhelmingly approve of the job he is doing (86%).

Just a quarter of Americans (25%) say the country is heading in the right direction, and 62% report the country is off on the wrong track.

• Just five percent of Democratic registered voters say the country is headed in the right direction, while 89% say the nation is on the wrong track.
• Republican registered voters maintain their overall optimism, with 54% saying the country is headed in the right direction, although this number remains down by about 20 percentage points since February of this year, following Trump’s impeachment acquittal and before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the United States.

About one in three Americans reports that the economy and jobs are the most important problems facing the country (30%), while about 20% say that healthcare is the main problem. Sixteen percent of Americans continue to volunteer other issues as the main problem, citing coronavirus most frequently, followed by the Trump administration and the divisive nature of politics today.

• Republican registered voters are more likely to say the economy and jobs (34%) are the most important problems compared to 24% of Democratic registered voters.
• Healthcare is the most important issue for Democratic registered voters (28%), while just 14% of Republican registered voters say the same thing.
• Democratic registered voters are more likely to volunteer other problems (21%) like coronavirus and the Trump administration. Twelve percent of Republican registered voters also volunteer issues but are most focused on complaints around divisive politics and coronavirus’ economic impact.

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between October 9-13, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,303 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 1,120 registered voters, 473 Democratic registered voters, 511 Republican registered voters, 100 independent registered voters and 882 likely voters. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 3.3 percentage points for all registered voters, ± 5.1 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, ± 4.9 percentage points for Republican registered voters, ± 11.2 percentage points for independent registered voters, and ± 3.8 percentage points for likely voters. 

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Senior Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

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