California Sours On Trump, Including Some Of His Base – Los Angeles, CA Patch


LOS ANGELES, CA The presidential election is almost three months away, but Golden State voters are already fired up, according to a new poll out this week.

So what has the bluest of states so fired up? A chance to vote for Former Vice President Joe Biden? The two or three competitive congressional races (Districts 21, 25 and maybe 28)? Any of the 12 statewide ballot measures ranging from affirmative action to consumer privacy, property tax increases or voting rights for 17-year-olds and parolees?

According to a new poll from UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, California voters are looking forward to voting against President Donald Trump in record numbers. He already holds the state record for a landslide loss in a presidential race having lost to Hillary Clinton in California by 30 percent. But he's poised to break his own record, according to the Berkeley poll. The poll has the president trailing Biden in California by 39 points, 28 percent to 67 percent. His dismal polling in California stems largely from declining approval ratings among independent voters and Republican voters.

"There was a question of whether his support was already so low in the state that it couldn't go lower," said Berkeley political scientist Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies told the Los Angeles Times, adding the poll "shows the answer is no."

Schickler said it's notable that Trump is polling poorly with all racial groups in California.

"Biden's overwhelming support across all racial groups is striking. He leads by at least a two-to-one margin among white voters, Latinos, Black voters and Asian Americans," he said. "In many states, white voters are closely divided and there are big differences in the views of President Trump across racial groups. Not so in California."

According to the poll, Trump's standing with California voters has slipped notably in the past six months. Just 29% of registered voters now say they approve of the job Trump is doing as president while 71% disapprove. Among those who disapprove, 63% disapprove strongly, up 6 percentage points from January.

His approval rating is largely tied with attitudes about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Trump theoretically has just under three months to turn it around, but in reality, a significant proportion of California voters could be casting their mail-in ballots a full month before the election.

Due to the pandemic, all registered voters will receive mail-in ballots. Each county is required to start mailing out the ballots by Oct. 5, and some counties may send them out even sooner, according to the Secretary of State's office.

In addition to local elections, California voters will be choosing 53 of California's seats in the House of Representatives, 80 state assembly seats, 20 state senate seats, and 12 statewide ballot measures.

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California Sours On Trump, Including Some Of His Base - Los Angeles, CA Patch

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