Buttigieg to Host Training for Biden Volunteers: Campaign Update

(Bloomberg) -- Pete Buttigieg will hold a virtual training Friday for organizers in Virginia with Joe Biden’s campaign.

The training comes as Democrats have had to adjust their traditional door-to-door canvassing operations to respond to social distancing requirements due to the coronavirus.

With Biden remaining under quarantine at his home in Delaware, the 38-year-old former South Bend, Indiana mayor will add some of the technological skills he showed during his failed presidential campaign to the training.

Democratic groups planning for November say that they’re planning more direct digital targeting, social media campaigns and virtual phone banks, which allow volunteers to call potential voters from their smart phones.

With lockdowns still in place in many states, that’s extending to virtual training as well.

Trump Holds Advantage in Battlegrounds (1:37 p.m.)

President Donald Trump is ahead by 6 points in 15 battleground states, though presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is leading nationally, according to a CNN poll released Wednesday.

The poll showed that 52% of registered voters in battleground states favored Trump, while 45% backed Biden. But the numbers were nearly reversed among voters nationally, who backed Biden by 51% and Trump by 46%.

CNN defined the battlegrounds as states where the margin of victory was eight percentage points or less in 2016; Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The majority of respondents nationally said Biden was more likely than Trump to care about them, be honest and trustworthy, manage the government effectively, unite the country and be trusted in a crisis. A majority also said he would handle the coronavirus outbreak and health care better than Trump.

But 49% of respondents said Trump has the stamina and sharpness to be president, while only 46% said the same of Biden, echoing a common attack the president has levied against his likely opponent. A majority also said Trump would handle the economy better. The survey of 1,112 adults was taken May 7-10. The margin of error was 3.7 percentage points.

Coming up:

Oregon is to hold its Democratic primary on May 19. The state has conducted all statewide contests by mail since 1998.

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