Three candidates stand before the presidency, the election of which depends on their performance and that performance during the pandemic.
“[Issues that would be seen are] the economy and the coronavirus federal response, but those two issues are tightly connected,” said Andrew Garner, an associate professor for the School of Politics, Public Affairs & International Studies at the University of Wyoming. “Barring something unforeseen, other issues are probably going to get viewed as distractions or side issues for most voters.”
Joe Biden and Donald Trump remain in the fight for the presidency. The latest backout of the race came from Bernie Sanders, who has decided to endorse Biden’s campaign on April 13 for the presidency. The following day on April 14, former president Barack Obama also endorsed Biden’s campaign. Biden holds 131 endorsements for his campaign as of April 14. Both of these are major endorsements for Biden and could further his campaign.
“Most often, candidates drop out earlier in the process (e.g., before the primaries) because they run out of money. Later, it’s usually based on performance in early elections,” said Garner.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has taken its toll on the race for election. Not only has the virus impacted the economy and shown the government’s reaction to emergency issues, but, 40% of voters are in favor of delaying the election and 68% believe there to be a huge impact on the election, according to the News Broadcasting Company (NBC) from a TargetSmart survey conducted April 11. Voting through mail and fear of the coronavirus is least prevalent with Republican voters; Trump accused Democrats of encouraging fraud in this system.
“I would point out, however, that before the COVID-19 situation when the economy was good, President Trump’s approval ratings were very low relative to the state of the economy,” said Garner. “So the public as a whole, at least, has not had a very positive opinion of Trump’s job performance during his first four years.”
Garner said a likely cascade of poor economic news will be released and this could damage Trump’s political campaign. The loss would be especially effective if that loss is historical in nature.
“Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see those reports, but if they are as bad as economists are estimating, then you could see President Trump’s approval ratings start to sharply decline,” said Garner.
Trump has 1,432 delegates and one opponent, Roque De La Fuente, running against him in the republican party who has no delegates as of April 14. Joe Biden is the last running democrat with 1,293 delegates as of April 14.
“Trump is very popular among Republican voters and most people who thought about challenging him realized they had a very small chance of winning the primary. That’s especially true for the more well-known potential candidates,” said Garner. “Those candidates will simply wait until the 2024 election to run for president.”
Garner explained the choice of a better candidate is subjective to the voter. He said each candidate best represented groups of people better in one way or another. Garner said he could not say any others were “better” than Biden in all areas.
