Sentiment Tracker
START BY READING OUR METHODOLOGY BEHIND THESE POLARITY CHARTS.
PANDEMIC
The daily average polarity of the posts about the pandemic confirm what several polls have been saying repeatedly: that Joe Biden is seen more positively in this regard than Donald Trump. Occasionally, the pattern is reversed but those changes may be linked to specific actions. For example, the reversal in the week of July 24, 2020, coincides with the announcement of executive orders on prescription drug prices. The pattern also holds mostly in the comparisons of overall average sentiments across the seven groupings of states although it’s a little surprising that Joe Biden has a larger negative polarity in both Strong Republican and Strong Democrat states. One interesting pattern in state-wise sentiments is that the polarity is less negative for Joe Biden than for Donald Trump in several tossup states.
ECONOMY
Posts about the economy show a mixed picture of overall sentiment towards Joe Biden and Donald Trump. They seem to be seesawing over the period forth for the two candidates. Comparison across the seven groupings of the states though gives a slightly more nuanced picture. Biden seems to be viewed more negatively on this topic in states that are Strong Republican but the pattern reverses with Trump seen much more negatively in Strong Democrat states. Interestingly, posts on the topic from tossup states are more negative about Trump than Biden. Could this be a problem for the Trump campaign? One good sign for Trump though is that the posts about him and the economy in the tossup state of Pennsylvania are more positive than for Biden. So, this could be the focus for the Trump campaign in this important state.
RACE RELATIONS
Comparison of Joe Biden and Donald Trump on the daily average polarity on race relations looks much like that for the pandemic. Joe Biden generally gets more positive polarity than Trump with occasional reversals. It’s surprising though that, just before the DNC national convention, Biden seems to have ceded ground to Trump in this regard. A comparison of the two candidates across the seven groupings of states, though, shows that posts about Trump are much more negative in all seven. State by state comparisons in the next two charts also shows the same thing – posts on race relations that reference Trump are more negative overall than posts on the same topic that reference Biden.
