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Voters like Biden more than they did Hillary Clinton, polls show

Supporters of the Biden-Harris ticket in Miami, Florida, on Sunday. Many Democrats and independents who did not vote for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Mrs Hillary Clinton, now plan to vote for Mr Joe Biden. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Supporters of the Biden-Harris ticket in Miami, Florida, on Sunday. Many Democrats and independents who did not vote for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Mrs Hillary Clinton, now plan to vote for Mr Joe Biden. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

NEW YORK • Ms Samantha Kacmarik, a Latina college student in Las Vegas, said that four years ago, she had viewed Mrs Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 election, as part of a corrupt political establishment.

Ms Flowers Forever, a black transgender music producer in Milwaukee, said she had thought Mrs Clinton would not change anything for the better.

And Mr Thomas Moline, a white retired garbage collector in Minneapolis, said he simply had not trusted her.

None of them voted for Mrs Clinton. All of them plan to vote for the current Democratic presidential candidate, Mr Joe Biden.

"I knew early on that Trump definitely wasn't the guy for me," recalled Mr Moline. But when it came to Mrs Clinton, he said: "I guess I had a bad taste in my mouth from her husband's eight years in office."

He voted for Mr Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, a decision he regrets. Mr Moline said: "I identify more with Biden - whether that's being a male chauvinist or whatever you want to call me."

Mr Biden is not Mrs Clinton.

And, for many Democrats and independents who sat out the 2016 United States presidential election, voted for third-party candidates or backed current President Donald Trump, it is a rationale for their vote that comes up repeatedly: Mr Biden is more acceptable to them than Mrs Clinton was, in ways large and small, personal and political, sexist and not - and those differences help them feel more comfortable voting for the Democratic nominee this time.

Mr Biden also benefits, of course, from the intense desire among Democrats to get Mr Trump out of office. A majority of voters give the President low marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the dominant issue of the race.

Mr Biden now leads Mr Trump in many public polls by bigger margins than Mrs Clinton had in 2016.

In private polling and focus groups, voters express more positive views of Mr Biden than of Mrs Clinton, though they know far less about his decades in political office.

Interviews with dozens of voters, union members and Democratic strategists reveal a party embracing Mr Biden - a 77-year-old white man - as a familiar political pitch.

"It's just a lot easier with Joe Biden because he's a guy and he's an old white guy. I hate saying that, but it's the truth," said Mr Aaron Stearns, the Democratic chair in Warren County in Pennsylvania.

Even as Mr Biden proposes a much bigger role for government than Mrs Clinton did four years ago, some voters view him as more moderate, and they do not see Mr Biden as being as divisive a political figure as they did her.

Polling shows Mr Biden scoring higher than Mrs Clinton among a wide range of demographic groups - most notably older voters, white voters and suburbanites.

But his advantage is stark among those who sat out the 2016 election or backed third-party candidates.

Mr Biden leads Mr Trump, 49 per cent to 19 per cent, among likely voters who backed third-party candidates in 2016, according to recent polling of battleground states by The New York Times and Siena College.

Among registered voters who sat out the 2016 election, Mr Biden leads by 9 percentage points.

Internal polling conducted for the campaign of former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders found that Mr Biden had a reservoir of goodwill that Mrs Clinton did not possess.

"He was a hard guy to hit," said Mr Ben Tulchin, Mr Sanders' pollster. "There's not a lot of passion for him, but they like him."

NYTIMES

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 20, 2020, with the headline Voters like Biden more than they did Hillary Clinton, polls show. Subscribe