Why did Trump lose? His own top pollster blames COVID, more in newly released report
Former President Donald Trump has blamed his election loss on baseless claims of voter fraud, but a report by a Republican pollster found that he mostly lost due to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The December 2020 report by Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio studied voters in 10 states and found that they ranked the COVID-19 pandemic as the top issue. President Joe Biden won those votes by a roughly 3-to-1 margin, while most voters disapproved of Trump’s response to the pandemic.
The report was distributed to Trump’s advisers ahead of Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Politico reported.
The report analyzed exit polls from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — states that Trump lost in 2020 after winning them in 2016, as well as Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio, which Trump won in both elections.
Trump lost ground with voters of “almost every age group” and saw the “greatest erosion with white voters, particularly white men,” the report found. Trump also had a “double-digit erosion” with “white college-educated voters across the board.” Trump made “double digit” gains with Hispanics and his popularity with Black voters was about the same as it was in 2016.
People who didn’t vote in 2016 but voted in 2020 made up one-sixth of the electorate in the report and the majority “broke” for Biden, especially in the five “flipped” states.
Biden had a double-digit lead over Trump in states that “flipped” to the Democratic candidate and a majority of voters saw Biden as the candidate best suited to handle the pandemic.
Trump faced criticism for his response to the pandemic, downplaying the COVID-19 risks and resisting precautions advocated by his administration’s health experts. Trump initially refused to wear a mask in public but later changed his stance, telling his supporters that it’s “patriotic” to wear one. Trump also held large indoor and outdoor rallies, flouting coronavirus rules.
The economy was the second-most significant issue among voters and although Trump won those voters by a 6-to-1 or better margin, “Biden won coronavirus voters, which was a bigger share of the electorate.”
Seventy-five percent of voters in the report said they support a mask mandate and nearly the same percentage of voters approved of Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s top infectious disease specialists. Trump repeatedly criticized Fauci and threatened to fire him after the election.
Voters’ perceptions of Trump’s behavior also contributed to his election loss, according to the report.
“Biden had a clear edge over POTUS on being seen as honest and trustworthy,” Fabrizio wrote.
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 9:27 AM with the headline "Why did Trump lose? His own top pollster blames COVID, more in newly released report."