Donald Trump leads Joe Biden in internet search as US votes in presidential election
The voting began in US presidential polls on Tuesday, which will conclude a bitter and divisive election campaign. Trump is seeking to overcome rival Biden’s lead in opinion polls to win four more years in the White House.
Joe Biden is ahead of Donald Trump in approval ratings just before the presidential election, but in internet search, the incumbent Republican US President has a clear lead over his Democrat opponent.
Many polls from major polling organisations have on an average given Biden an eight-point lead over Trump ahead of the presidential election. But an analysis of Google’s search data shows that interest in Donald Trump is growing.
In fact, just a day before the US presidential election, the gap started widening and the interest in Joe Biden started plunging (represented by the red line). On an average, 45 per cent of internet users searched for Trump as against 23 for Biden.
Nebraska, Vermont, Arizona, Washington and Oregon are leading the search for Trump on Google. While a few of these states have been pro-Democrats, the search for a Republican president is interesting. In Delaware, Texas, District of Columbia, Ohio and Arkansas too, Trump has an edge over Biden.
Among the top reasons for interest in Trump is a meeting between Lil Wayne and other rappers and the US President after the recent racial attacks in the United States. Racism is one of the hot topics in this election, and rappers supporting US President’s policies has generated a lot of interest.
Trump is also attracting eyeballs for his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where claims were made about the presence of 60,000 people. The issue is of interest because of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and officials’ warnings that such large gatherings can lead to a surge in cases. The US is already the worst hit country by the Covid-19 pandemic and several states have been witnessing a spike in the number of cases.
Biden, meanwhile, is being searched over the alleged harassment of his campaign bus by Trump supporters. The incident took place in Texas last week and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a probe.
Though the search throws up some interesting outcomes, it doesn’t reflect the real sentiment.
The voting began in US presidential polls on Tuesday, which will conclude a bitter and divisive election campaign. Trump is seeking to overcome rival Biden’s lead in opinion polls to win four more years in the White House.
Biden, who has framed the contest as a referendum on Trump’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, promised a renewed effort to combat the health crisis, fix the economy and bridge America’s political divide. He has kept a relatively steady lead in national polls.
But Trump is close in enough swing states to possibly piece together the 270 state-by-state Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. He defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election despite losing the national popular vote by about three million ballots.