Joe Biden convincingly tops Donald Trump in poll of LGBT+ voters – with a surprising amount of queer Republicans turning left
More than one in 10 LGBT+ Republicans plan to vote for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. (Scott Olson/Getty)
Joe Biden is holding a massive lead over Donald Trump among LGBT+ voters, and a significant number of queer Republicans are even planning on voting for him in the 2020 presidential elections.
Morning Consult has been polling LGBT+ voters since March, and Biden has led Trump by an average of 43 points among the LGBT+ voting bloc, 63 per cent to 20 per cent.
The data intelligence company reported that over 15 surveys, these figures have remained almost unchanged.
But Biden is also over-performing among LGBT+ Republicans, in comparison to his popularity among Republicans overall.
Queer Republican voters are five percentage points more likely than straight Republicans to say they will vote for the Democratic presidential candidate (12 per cent to seven per cent) and eight points less likely to say they would vote for Trump (80 per cent to 88 per cent).
LGBT+ Republicans are more likely to be white, male and live in rural areas than LGBT+ Democrats.
Overall, among the LGBT+ voters surveyed 53 per cent said their opinion of Biden was favourable, more than double (20 per cent) the number who view Trump favourably.
More than one in ten LGBT+ Republicans support Joe Biden as Donald Trump chips away at queer rights.
The results are unsurprising as Donald Trump has worked hard to dismantle LGBT+ rights since he was inaugurated in 2017.
The Trump administration has banned transgender people from serving in the military, actively supported discrimination against LGBT+ people in employment, services and healthcare and erased LGBT+ resources, data and language from government websites.
This week, Trump’s Republican Party announced that it would be leaving its 2016 party platform unchanged, meaning that the GOP will continue to officially support the reversal of marriage equality.
The White House also failed to officially recognise Pride Month for yet another year, in contrast to the Obama administration.
While Joe Biden’s comprehensive LGBT+ policy plan has won him plaudits from campaigners, Trump’s re-election campaign has published no policies whatsoever on LGBT+ issues – though he is raising funds by selling rainbow ‘Make America Great Again’ t-shirts.
