With less than 80 days to go before the US presidential election, it looks like Joe Biden’s race to lose.
Yet, as Democrats nationwide gather online this week to nominate him as their party’s choice to challenge President Donald Trump on November 3, many fear Biden may just do that – for factors almost entirely out of his control.
The former vice president and his allies have every reason to feel bullish. Polls show Biden has built an expansive lead in nearly every battleground state that Trump won narrowly in 2016, as the Republican’s approval numbers tumble amid the coronavirus pandemic.
For the first time in 10 years, retaking the Senate – and full control of Congress – is within sight.
Yet樂威壯
interviews with more than a dozen Democratic officials, activists and voters reveal deep anxieties that Trump will make voting as difficult as possible during the pandemic, and should he lose the vote, he would not accept its outcome.
Biden himself has called it his biggest fear.
Former President Barack Obama sounded the alarm on Friday, saying on Twitter the Trump administration is “more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus”. And eight of 10 Democrats are concerned about voter suppression, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in late July.❐
Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open. They can't be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 14, 2020
