Joe Biden now leads President Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in Wisconsin, extending his advantage in one of the most important states on the electoral map.
Trump has planned an official trip to the state on Thursday to visit the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard and tout his efforts to create jobs there as he seeks to shore up support.
Trump's 41% support in the Marquette University Law School poll _ to Biden's 49% _ is suffering from the same trends dragging down his national numbers. Only 44% of Wisconsinites approve of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and just 30% approve of his response to the protests over racial justice.
Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and White House counselor Kellyanne Conway were in Waukesha on Tuesday to promote a proposal for government-supported vouchers for private schools in an effort to court Catholic and evangelical voters in the state.
Those efforts may have helped the president. Trump leads among Catholic voters in Wisconsin, 48% to 43%, according to the Marquette poll. His lead among born-again Protestants is 64% to 28%.
The 8-point lead among registered voters in the state is a significant break toward Biden after polls in April and May showed him ahead by just 3 points. "So this has been a good gain for Biden, and it's a relatively widespread gain among different regions and different groups," said poll director Charles Franklin.
Trump has long credited Hillary Clinton's lackluster campaign in Wisconsin for his 2016 victory, and has made seven trips there during his presidency. Thursday's visit to the Green Bay area will be his eighth. Besides the shipyard visit, he'll participate in a televised Fox News town hall in Green Bay.
The Biden campaign announced four key staff hires in Wisconsin Wednesday, including veterans of winning campaigns for Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers. The campaign also bought an additional $228,000 in campaign ads in Wisconsin beginning Wednesday.
The poll of 805 registered Wisconsin voters was conducted last week and has a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.
