Trump vs. Biden Town Halls: Have Their Odds Changed?

• Joe Biden is still favored to win the 2020 US Presidential Election with -190 odds.
• Both Trump and Biden held their televised town hall meetings at the same time on Thursday.
• Donald Trump sits at +155 odds to be re-elected President of the United States.

WASHINGTON D.C. – The second Presidential Debate between Democratic nominee Joe Biden and Donald Trump season was supposed to take place on Thursday.

This occurred due to both campaign’s inability to agree on how to host the debate safely in the wake of President Trump testing positive for Covid-19. The debate was canceled by the Commission on Presidential debates and instead, both candidates held televised town hall meetings with voters asking questions.

Each campaign’s town hall being held at the same time added even more competitive spite to an already very personal Presidential Election. For anyone keeping count Biden won the “Battle of the Town Halls” as more people tuned in to watch Biden address voters than President Trump.

Biden’s town hall drew almost a million more viewers than Trump’s, according to early TV ratings.

The figures are particularly surprising given Biden's town hall aired on just one network, whereas Trump's was simulcast across three. https://t.co/AaG0gGH2ee

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 16, 2020

Although the viewership of a town hall meeting doesn’t necessarily correlate to winning the Presidential Election. It does imply that potential voters are more interested in what Biden has to say than Trump.

Biden came into the town hall meetings surging in polls and growing his lead over Trump at sportsbooks.

The Presidential Race at legal sportsbooks hasn’t been affected by last night’s town hall meetings as Biden is still favored to take the White House from President Trump in November with -190 odds.

Biden has done well to maintain a healthy distance from Trump on the odds board. However, it remains to be seen how the Hunter Biden and Ukraine email fiasco will play out to voters as that is the biggest roadblock for the Biden campaign right now but even that could blow away shortly as the FBI has now launched an investigation.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is investigating whether emails that were published by the New York Post related to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, are connected to a possible Russian influence operation to spread disinformation https://t.co/4UFjUNXZ07

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) October 16, 2020

Trump’s +155 odds are still worth the dice roll though as he’s proven that he can pull off the upset at the polls.

Trump will need a strong showing in the final stretch of the campaign season to make up some of the ground he has lost in the polls. While the President’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic has turned away many voters, there’s plenty of time to still turn the tide before November 3.

While the town hall didn’t sway the betting odds much that doesn’t mean an event down the road can’t, especially this late in the political process.

With only one Presidential debate left it’ll likely be the last chance for each candidate to sway voters and possibly cause a shift in the ( 2020 US Presidential Election odds. That debate is scheduled for October 22 and will pretty much begin the playoffs for the US Election season.

News tags: 2020 US Presidential Election | COVID-19 | Democratic Party | Donald Trump | Hillary Clinton | Hunter Biden | Joe Biden | Kamala Harris | Mike Pence | Republican Party | Ukraine