Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden's lead in the polls grew even wider after the first presidential debate with President Donald Trump last week and the president's COVID-19 diagnosis, a Just the News Daily Poll conducted by Scott Rasmussen shows.
Since last week, Biden moved up two points in the polls and currently leads Trump 51% to 43%. Trump's support fell two points over the same period.
Among rural voters, Trump's lead fell from 32% to 16%. His support from independent voters fell, too.
According to Rasmussen, Biden's lead grew because Trump's numbers in the polls fell, not because the former vice president gained an increase in popularity.
"Perhaps the only encouraging news in the survey for the president is that Biden did not gain support. He remained steady at 51%," Rasmussen said. "It is possible that this is just a temporary decline and these voters may return to Trump, depending upon how things progress this week."
The poll surveyed 1,200 registered voters, including 763 likely voters, from Oct. 1-3. For results from the full sample, the margin of error was +/- 2.8 percentage points, and results from the likely voter sample had a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.