Voters Think More Highly of Biden Than Clinton in Key States

A new poll shows Vice President Joe Biden is viewed as more trustworthy and has higher favorability ratings than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in three key swing states.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday shows voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania view Biden as more “honest and trustworthy” than Clinton by at least 20 percentage points in all three states. Biden’s favorability ratings beat Clinton’s by seven to nine percentage points.

The poll also showed that Biden was as competitive as Clinton in general election match-ups in the three states against Republican contenders Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.

Still, Clinton remains the frontrunner in the primary by a wide margin, with at least 45 percent of registered Democrats supporting her, while 15 percent would back Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and 11 percent would back Biden.

Peter Brown, assistant director at Quinnipiac University, noted that Clinton’s poll numbers were like a “leaky faucet” and have gone down since she entered the race. “She is now getting less than half the vote in all three states’ Democratic primaries,” he said.

Biden is reportedly considering running for president in 2016 and could make a decision by the end of summer.

Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are key swing states and no presidential candidate since 1960 has won without taking at least two of these three states.

The live interview poll was done by cell phone and landline from Aug. 7-18 of 1,093 registered voters in Florida, 1,096 registered voters in Ohio and 1,085 registered voters in Pennsylvania. It had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points in all three states.

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