Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a majority of all delegates to their parties’ conventions, including delegates not yet allocated.

Both Biden and Trump won their nominations easily, with Biden taking 86.4% of the national Democratic primary vote in contests so far, far ahead of the next closest Marianne Williamson with 3.4%.

In the Republican contest, Trump defeated Nikki Haley by 73.4–23.1 in the national popular vote, with the winner takes all/most rules that apply for most Republican contests further benefitting him in delegates.

Conventions that formally elect the nominees will be held in July (for Republicans) and August (Democrats). If either Trump or Biden withdrew prior to the convention, delegates bound to that candidate would need to be persuaded to vote for another candidate. It could be messy to replace either Trump or Biden as the nominee.

By the November 5 general election, Biden will be almost 82 and Trump 78. In the FiveThirtyEight aggregates, Biden’s net approval is -16.8, with 55.4% disapproving and 38.6% approving. Trump’s net favourability is -9.7, with 52.5% unfavourable and 42.8% favourable. Recently both Biden’s and Trump’s ratings have dipped, with Biden’s March 7 State of the Union address making no difference.

Biden’s net approval is worse than for any other president at this stage of their........

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