ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump holds a 5-point lead over President Joe Biden in Georgia, according to a poll Quinnipiac University released Wednesday.
The survey of 1,203 self-identified voters found Trump at 49% to 44% for Biden in a head-to-head matchup.
In a six-way hypothetical race that includes other candidates, Trump leads with 43% support to 37% for Biden, 8% for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 3% for Libertarian Chase Oliver, 3% for independent Cornel West, and 2% for the Green Party’s Jill Stein.
Trump’s conviction last week on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to an ex-porn star to cover up a sexual relationship appears to make little difference to the poll’s respondents, who were surveyed from May 30-June 3.
When asked how the guilty verdict would affect their vote, 22% said it makes them less likely to vote for Trump, but 23% said it makes them more likely to support the former president. Fifty-four percent said Trump’s conviction makes no difference in how they plan to vote. Half of the voters surveyed (50%) said they agree with the verdict, while 44% said they disagree.
Not surprisingly, Democrats backed Biden in large numbers, while Republicans did the same for Trump. Democrats also overwhelmingly agreed with last week’s verdict, while a slightly lower percentage of Republicans disagreed.
Independents were evenly divided among Biden and Trump in a head-to-head matchup, with 45% supporting each candidate.
Trump held a strong lead among men who responded to the poll, with 56% backing Trump to 37% supporting Biden. The president enjoyed a smaller lead over Trump among women, 50% to 43%.
When broken down by age, Biden leads only among voters between ages 50 and 64. Among that group, Biden drew support from 51% of those surveyed to 46% for Trump.
The former president dominated among those ages 35 to 49 and those age 65 and older, with double-digits leads over Biden in both cases. Trump held a 1-point lead among voters 18 to 34, within the poll’s margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 points.
Poll respondents also gave Trump the edge over Biden when asked which candidate would do a better job handling issues including responding to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, immigration, the economy, and preserving democracy in the United States. Biden only outpolled Trump on abortion, with 47% saying the Democrat would do a better job handling that issue to 45% for Trump.