August 2020

Battleground Poll

The August 2020 Battleground Poll gave strong evidence that three months out from the 2020 election, President Trump faces eroding support on the economy, and major challenges with Independent, suburban, and middle class voters. Americans trust Vice President Joe Biden more than President Trump on key issues, including the economy, where 49% of voters say they have more confidence in Biden, and 47% have more confidence in Trump. Democrats have a much more narrow lead on the Congressional ballot, which finds Republicans at a disadvantage of just six points (44%-50%) despite voters trending toward Biden on key issues.

View the full press release with detailed results here, or click on the links below to view data and individual summaries from Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group:

Lake Summary

Tarrance Summary

Questionnaire & Toplines

Graphics and Slides

Crosstabs

Dataset

Civility Poll

The August 2020 Civility Poll found that a majority of Americans believe the country has become more divided in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial and social justice protests sweeping the country. An overwhelming 70% of the country believes the racial protests were needed—but voters are sharply divided along partisan and racial lines on the civility of the protests.

Rather than see the country put politics aside and unite behind common purpose in the face of a global pandemic, most voters believe that the COVID-19 crisis has only exacerbated existing political polarization. Majorities of Republicans (61%), Independents (63%), and Democrats (55%) all thought politics grew less civil over the summer. And, most voters (59%) think things have gotten less civil during the COVID-19 crisis overall. When responses were broken down by economic class, middle- and working-class voters were the most likely to say politics have become less civil since COVID-19.