The US presidential debate did little to change the opinions of many voters about either candidate.
This is evidenced by an Ipsos poll in collaboration with the website 538, dedicated to the analysis of public opinion polls.
According to the analysis, Trump was the clear winner of the debate. 60% said he performed better, while only 21% said Biden performed more positively. 19% of respondents could not decide.
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However, when respondents were asked which candidates they planned to vote for, it turned out that voters barely changed their minds.
Biden-Trump Debates: How They Affected Voters
After the debate, Biden lost only a small share of likely voters, with 46.7% saying they were considering voting for him, down 1.6 percentage points from before the event.
Trump's support was barely changed, perhaps reflecting Biden's poor performance on June 27. However, voters were also not particularly impressed by Trump's performance — the share of those considering voting for him after the debate increased from 43.5% to 43.9%.
When casting their vote for one candidate or another, Americans will pay attention to how politicians are going to close the issues of inflation or rising costs, immigration, and political extremism or polarization.
As before the debate, voters surveyed believe that Trump will do a better job of dealing with two main issues: inflation or rising costs, and immigration. However, according to Americans, Biden will do a better job of dealing with political extremism or polarization, as well as the next most important issue on the list – abortion.
The survey was conducted in two waves – before and after the debate. The second wave was conducted late on June 27 and early on June 28 among 2,543 likely voters who had previously responded to the first wave. The poll has a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.
Of those respondents, 1,700 watched all or part of the debate. The margin of error for those who watched the debate is 2.5 percentage points.
