Democratic Challenger, Joe Biden has opened up his biggest poll lead over Donald Trump since securing the nomination of the party, with a new nationwide survey showing him with a 15-point advantage leading up to the November presidential elections.

According to a Quinnipiac University national poll released on Wednesday, aJuly 15 registered voters back the former vice president over the incumbent 52 – 37 per cent .

The same poll one month ago gave Mr Biden a lead of eight points, 49 – 41 per cent.
The poll surveyed 1,273 self-identified registered voters nationwide between 9 –13 July, with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

According to the poll, independent voters were behind the shift in favour of Biden.
In June when the last survey was conducted, independent voters were split nearly evenly between the two, now Mr Biden leads 51 – 34 per cent.

“Yes, there’s still 16 weeks until Election Day, but this is a very unpleasant real-time look at what the future could be for President Trump. There is no upside, no silver lining, no encouraging trend hidden somewhere in this survey for the president,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.

According to the poll, Biden now leads Trump on the public’s opinion of who would better handle the economy, 50 – 45 per cent, a reversal of a June survey when Mr Trump led 51 – 46 percent.

Trump’s polling with the public has continued to plummet over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 3.4 million Americans have been infected with the virus and at least 136,800 have died.

“Voters give the president a negative 35 – 62 percent approval rating for his handling of the coronavirus response, his lowest mark since the question was first asked in March,” Quinnipiac said.