Biden Is Projected To Be The President-Elect. Here’s How It All Went Down.

In response to Clare’s comments about the unexpected nature of this campaign, the pandemic has obviously changed pretty much everything — the state of the country, the economy, and the focus of the race. I wonder how the claim that “democracy itself is on the ballot” would have played out under more normal circumstances. But the distinctions between the two parties are fairly clear on a lot of key issues, which I think actually makes it harder to define key messages and issues in a particular race.

But note that Biden has maintained his slight advantage over Sanders when comparing hypothetical head-to-head polls against Trump. Biden may have an advantage in part due to his perceived moderation.

What if Democrats had nominated Sanders instead of Biden? Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape has continued to run Sanders-Trump head-to-head polling. Biden continues to outperform Sanders, but only by 2-3 points. And as much as Trump has tried to cast Biden as a trojan horse for Sanders-style socialism, Sanders has also comfortably led Trump in every head-to-head poll going back to August 2019. So maybe that wasn’t the best strategy for Trump.