Joe Biden Logs Biggest Polling Lead Yet and Has Donald Trump On the Defense

Even before his COVID-19 diagnosis, this is not the fall that President Donald Trump had anticipated. For the better part of the year, former Vice President Joe Biden has shown he can hold his own in a head-to-head against President Donald Trump — at least in the polls. Now, weeks before Election Day, the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll has Biden up nationally by 14 points, his largest advantage yet and coming at a point in the race where trailing presidential candidates seldom stage a comeback of the scale Trump would require.

As we head into the final stretch, with more than three million votes and counting already cast, it’s worth noting that Biden has also widened his lead in crucial battleground states, putting Republicans on their heels in places that would be safely under red ink during normal years. The former VP is also enjoying a cash advantage that no one challenging an incumbent President would ordinarily expect.

As we use The D.C. Brief this week to consider the various reasons we will be chewing our fingernails and/or chugging Pepto-Bismol on Election Day and beyond, we offer informed guesses but hardly predictions. As Trump’s surprise win in 2016 has shown, this is hardly a normal incumbent.