Insider poll: Biden voters are more anxious about the economy than Trump voters
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- A new series of polls suggests there's a link between a voter's financial status and their preferred 2020 presidential candidate.
- Affluent voters tended to favor President Donald Trump, according to the data.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden was more likely to gain support from voters with financial hardships.
- The surveys were conducted by Insider with SurveyMonkey from August to October.
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A new series of polls suggests that voters who are economically anxious, financially imperiled due to coronavirus, and otherwise worried about money are more likely to back Democratic nominee Joe Biden, not President Donald Trump.
The surveys, conducted by Insider with SurveyMonkey, reveal that Americans' housing, employment, and debt situations each played roles in their voting habits. Overall, the data indicates that affluent voters tended to favor Trump.
Biden was more likely to gain support from voters with less financial stability: those out of work due to the pandemic, those who rented, those with fewer assets, those who didn't own businesses, and so on.
This breakdown comes from an aggregation of nine polls taken between August 8 and October 12. All told, the polls combined to 10,077 respondents, 8,623 of whom indicated they were registered to vote and 8,321 of whom said they would likely do so. Respondents were asked about their intentions of who they would vote for in November as well as a number of other questions.
The polls come during the final stretch of the 2020 race, with just four days left until election day. On the campaign trail, Trump continues to position himself as the stronger candidate when it comes to the economy, hoping it will carry him to victory. Meanwhile, Biden has made the economic and personal devastation of the coronavirus pandemic a central part of his campaign, and promised to rebuild the economy if he wins the White House.
According to the polls, voters who faced economic setbacks from the public health crisis skewed toward Biden. Similarly, households that have been hit by layoffs in recent years tended to lean toward Biden as well.
- Renters preferred Biden by 10 percentage points, along with people who live at home with their parents, by 21 percentage points.
- Homeowners, roughly 51 percent of respondents, were more inclined to vote for Trump by 6 percentage points.
- Americans with more than one car were on Trump's side by 13 percentage points. Those who owned an American-made car shifted 32 percentage points more toward Trump.
- Business owners also favored Trump by 13 percentage points.
- Parents alligned more with Trump, whereas those without children were 21 percentage points likelier to vote for Biden.
- Voters with student loans favored Biden by 13 percentage points.
- Households where a family member had declared bankruptcy before favored toward Trump by 7 percentage points.
SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Polling data collected 1,150 respondents August 7, 1,106 respondents on August 11, 1,128 respondents August 21-22, 1,073 respondents August 29, 1,161 respondents September 4, 1,107 respondents September 15, 1,017 respondents September 18, 1,122 respondents September 28, 1,176 respondents October 5, and 1,130 respondents on October 12. All polls carried approximately a 3 percentage point margin of error individually.