https://www.usatoday.com/story/news.../4488735002/?utm_source=AMP&utm_medium=UpNext Trump loses almost every matchup with top 2020 Democrats in Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan, polls find WILLIAM CUMMINGS| USA TODAY 5:05 p.m. CST Jan. 16, 2020 WASHINGTON – Most of the top Democratic candidates hold narrow leads over President Donald Trump in the key states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida, according to three recent polls. "Joe Biden continues to be in a very strong position in Florida," said Monica Escaleras, director of the university's Business and Economics Polling Initiative. "However, it will be interesting to see what impact the early contests in New Hampshire and Iowa will have on voters in Florida regarding their support for Biden." Like the nation at large, Floridians were split on impeachment. A slim majority of 51% said the Senate should not convict and remove Trump in his impeachment trial, while 49% thought he should be removed. The Florida Atlantic University poll was conducted from Jan. 9-12 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. In Wisconsin, a poll from a Marquette University Law School found Biden leading Trump by four percentage points, 49%-45% and Sanders with a tight one-point lead, 47%-46%. But Trump led Warren in Wisconsin 48%-45% and Buttigieg 46%-44%. Trump won the state in 2016 after it had voted for the Democrat in every presidential race since 1988. Democrats will likely have to win Wisconsin back to retake the White House. Biden led in the Wisconsin primary race as well with 23% support, but Sanders was close behind at 19%. Buttigieg was third at 15%, followed by Warren at 14%. Voters in the Badger State were slightly more opposed to impeachment than those in Florida. Forty-nine percent opposed the House vote to impeach Trump, compared with 47% who approved the move. Forty-nine percent also opposed a Senate conviction, while 44% favored Trump's removal. The Marquette poll was conducted from Jan. 8-12 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1%. Michigan is another state that had been considered safely Democratic until 2016. Before that election, Michigan voted for the Democrat in every presidential race dating back to 1992. According to a poll from EPIC-MRA of Lansing, Michigan, Democrats have a fair chance of winning the state in 2020. Biden would beat Trump 50%-44% if the election were held today, the poll found. Sanders led Trump in the poll 50%-45%, Warren was up 48%-45% and Buttigieg led him 47%-43% Bloomberg, who was included in the polls in Florida and Wisconsin, beat Trump 49%-47%. The EPIC-MRA poll was conducted from Jan. 9-12 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4%.
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-h...-looks-more-like-a-long-shot-than-a-slam-dunk January 23, 2020 - 09:00 AM EST Trump's reelection looks more like a long shot than a slam dunk BY LARA M. BROWN, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR Although many financial analysts and political forecasters contend that President Donald Trump is likely to be reelected in November because incumbents typically win reelection when the economy is strong, Trump is not a typical incumbent. These are not typical times. At the outset, Trump will be the only impeached president to have run for reelection. Given that nearly 47 percent of the public believes he should be removed by the Senate, he seems to be starting his campaign from an unusually weak position. By way of comparison, it is helpful to recall that at the outset of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial in the Senate, only about one-third of Americans wanted Clinton removed from office. And while the Republican majority in the Senate may reject removing Trump from office, they cannot remove the still-metastasizing scandal that surrounds his actions with regard to Ukraine. The Senate can ignore, but it cannot remove, the damning facts and testimony from the public record, which show that Trump asked a foreign leader to investigate a potential 2020 rival and illegally withheld military assistance in an effort to gain leverage. Aside from Trump’s approval rating being the lowest of any president to run for reelection since Gerald Ford (who lost), according to my analysis of Gallup’s approval data, Trump’s third year net approval rating of -11.6 percent (mean approval minus mean disapproval) was nearly identical to Jimmy Carter’s net approval rating of -11.5 percent (he also lost). The only other president since Carter to have a negative net approval rating for his third year in office was Barack Obama — and Obama’s net approval rating was just -2.9, more than 8.5 percentage points higher than either Carter or Trump. Trump’s mean disapproval rating for his third year also was terrible: 53.9 percent. He is the only president to have a mean disapproval rating above 50 percent. The two presidents who were closest were Carter (48.9) and Obama (47.4). Making matters worse, political scientists Peter Enns and Jonathon Schuldt have suggested that Trump may be even less popular than these standard Gallup approval and disapproval numbers suggest. Although some Trump supporters may be hopeful since Obama’s numbers were not strong and he still won reelection, it should be recalled that Obama earned about 3.5 million fewer popular votes in 2012 than in 2008. Obama also was the first president since Woodrow Wilson to win reelection with fewer electoral votes than in his first election. Trump cannot afford to lose another 3.5 million votes. He was down in 2016 by nearly 3 million votes already. And while some have suggested that Trump may be able to lose up to 5 million votes and still win an electoral vote majority, they are overlooking how the Electoral College has worked in the past. Popular vote inversions rarely occur when one candidate earns a majority of the popular vote. Since 1860, there have been 26 presidential elections in which a candidate earned a majority of the popular vote. In 25 of these elections, the candidate who earned the popular vote majority also won the Electoral College. There was only one inversion. In 1876, Samuel Tilden earned 50.92 percent of the popular vote, but lost the election to Rutherford Hayes. It is also the case that since 1860 there have been 14 presidential elections where no candidate earned a majority of the popular vote because third-party and independent candidates did relatively well. Among this smaller set of elections, there have been three inversions: 1888, 2000 and 2016. In each of these three elections, the plurality winner earned about 48 percent of the popular vote. In 1888, Grover Cleveland won 48.63 percent; in 2000, Al Gore won 48.38 percent; and in 2016, Hillary Clinton won 48.02 percent. Given this history, it would appear that ever since Republicans and Democrats have been competing for the presidency, the real key to winning the Electoral College is winning a popular vote majority — not a popular vote plurality (48 percent), a significant margin over one’s main opponent (millions of votes) or a majority of the two-party popular vote (which omits third-party and independent candidates to compare across elections). Returning to Trump, it seems highly unlikely that third-party and independent candidates will be able to attract as many votes in 2020 as they did in 2016. No matter what happens between now and November, it is difficult to imagine voters being willing to “waste their votes” to send a message. This was part of the election dynamic in 2016. Even though both candidates were broadly disliked, most believed that Hillary Clinton would win. Voters on both sides of the aisle believed that their votes were not likely to change the outcome and that by voting for a third party, they could send a message to the parties that they should “do better.” More than 6 percent of the vote went for candidates other than Clinton or Trump. That will not be the case in 2020. Partisans are highly engaged and seem unlikely to stray from their respective party nominees. Independents and occasional voters also are likely to believe their votes may make the difference between one side winning or losing. In this circumstance, one candidate probably will earn a majority of the popular vote and likely win the Electoral College. And if you think this election will favor Trump, ask yourself this question: When was the last time his approval rating was above 45 percent and his disapproval was below 45 percent? Answer: not since his inauguration. Simply put, this fact does not bode well for this incumbent — no matter how strong the economy or his campaign’s success in turning out his voters. Trump is not a majority president. It’s unlikely he can be a majority candidate. Lara M. Brown is director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. Follow her on Twitter @LaraMBrownPhD.
Who said his name was literally on the ballot..don't be obtuse. He bragged that he was being represented on the ballot, that his Presidency was being represented, that he won the Senate (where was his name on the Senate ballots?)... then when his people lost....suddenly..my name was not on the ballot.... convenient.
His name has not been on any ballot since Nov 2016. If it had been, Republican turnout would have been much higher. It doesn't matter what a politician says before the election or after the election with regard to this. The fact remains that his name was not on the ballot.
So Trump was full of shit when he said “I won the Senate, you don’t mention that…. I won the Senate…. I won the Senate, and that’s historic, too.”
This is how this works and people can't seem to understand this---- McDonald's continues to say that they have the best hamburgers and service----Bose continues to say they have the best quality speakers----Liberty Mutual continues to say they offer the best insurance services. It's called self promotion and advertising, yet when they do it no one has a problem with it. Trump does it and it's called lying and narcisissm--Neither of which is true.
Of course it does. The point is that Trump's name was not on the ballot since 2016-----so what if he promotes himself by saying I won or saying that I had the biggest mall crowd etc. It just doesn't matter and certainly isn't lying. ---It's advertising.
Picture it another way----What if Trump goes into a state to campaign and says----Folks I am here, but this election doesn't have any connection to me, but if you would, would you please vote for X even it has no relation to me? -----Sounds pretty inspiring huh?