Donald Trump’s re-election prospects hit by virus surge in red swing states
As COVID-19 cases in Florida, Arizona and Texas surge, new polling suggests the US President has a re-election fight on his hands.
Donald Trump’s re-election hopes are being hit by the surge in coronavirus cases across must-win states in the south and west as infections in the key battleground of Florida topped 15,000 for the first time.
The 15,299 new cases in Florida was the highest number daily recorded by any US state during the pandemic, including New York, and came as the nation recorded more than 60,000 new infections for the third straight day.
“This is an American failure,” said Joseph Kanter, regional medical director for the Greater New Orleans area. “We’re five months into this epidemic and we can’t figure it out.”
A new CBS poll shows that the surge in virus cases in the key Republican states of Florida, Arizona and Texas is now hurting the president politically with two-thirds of voters in these states saying their state reopened too early because of political pressure from the president.
State Governors and city mayors in several of those states and cities where the outbreak is worst are now moving to reimpose restrictions including by closing bars and restaurants – moves which will stunt their economic recovery and which will further hurt the president politically.
The CBS poll shows two in three voters in the sunbelt states of Florida, Arizona and Texas – each won by Mr Trump in 2016 – said the fight against the virus was going badly in their state. The poll found that support for Mr Trump’s Democratic rival Joe Biden in these states was increasing with Mr Biden enjoying a six-point lead in the must-win state of Florida with Mr Biden now level with Mr Trump in Arizona and just one point down in Texas which has not voted for a Democrat presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Mr Trump would need to win all of these three states – as well as the Midwestern swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – to repeat his 2016 victory in the November election.
In Florida, where 269,811 people have tested positive for the virus, the daily death toll has more than doubled to an average of 73 deaths a day compared to 30 deaths a day three weeks ago.
The state’s Governor Ron DeSantis, a close Trump ally who has prioritised reopening his state’s economy over fighting the virus, is under growing pressure to impose new restrictions as cases surge.
The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez has imposed a curfew and has closed indoor dining in restaurants in response to the spike in cases.
“We’ve definitely had a sharp increase in the number of people going to the hospital, the number of people in the ICU, and the number of people on ventilators,” he said. “We still have capacity, but it does cause me a lot of concern.”
The rise in cases in Florida has intensified debate over whether the Republicans will be able hold the Republican Convention in the northern Florida city of Jacksonville next month where the president has called for big crowds to watch him accept his party’s nomination.
The surge in new cases across the south and west of the US has been led by states that reopened their economies early, such as South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Utah.
The death toll from the latest spike in cases is now causing an uptick in the number of daily deaths from COVID-19, with the daily national toll now rising to between 700 and 900 a day – a figure that is expected to rise further but is still far below the daily 2500 deaths recorded in April.
Mr Trump has focused on the lower death rate rather than the rising infection rate when discussing the pandemic and he continues to urge states to reopen the economy to get people back to work and revive the job market.
However the president’s approval ratings have taken a hit amid criticism of his handling of the pandemic and the impact of the economic recession and recent racial riots.
The latest RealClear Politics average of polls has Mr Biden leading the president by 9 points, 49.4 to 40.3. The RCP average also shows the former Vice President leading the president by between 5 and 7 points in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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