Donald Trump has surged ahead of Kamala Harris in three key battleground states, according to a new poll.
Trump is ahead by three points in North Carolina, four points in Georgia, and five points in Arizona, says the latest New York Times/Sienna College poll.
They are three of seven swing states that are central to a victory in November and represent a possible turnaround for Trump after weeks of poor polling.
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Voters in the Sun Belt told pollsters that Trump improved their lives as president and are concerned that the opposite might be the case should Harris occupy the White House.
Trump lost both Arizona and Georgia to Joe Biden in 2020 and while North Carolina has been solidly Republican since 2008 and Trump remains ahead, Harris has made enough gains to represent a real challenge.
The Times said the poll results indicate the 2024 presidential election could be the tightest in U.S. history.
Harris will have earmarked a win in Arizona, which Biden won by 10,400 votes four years ago and she was leading by five points a month ago. Now, the Times/Siena poll puts Trump ahead by 50 percent to 45 percent.
The Times says the Hispanic vote, in particular, has moved away from Harris.
In Georgia—won with an 11,800 votes margin by Biden last time around—Trump is holding a 49 percent to 45 percent advantage, with the former president’s pessimistic view of where the nation is heading after nearly four years of Biden resonating with some voters, the report suggests.
North Carolina is more concerning to the Trump campaign. He won the state by a whopping 75,000 votes in 2020 but now his lead over Harris has narrowed to 49 percent to 47 percent for Harris.
Intriguingly, despite the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, voters were split on which candidate would be better at protecting democracy.
Although Trump is in front in the three Sun Belt states, Harris is still doing better in all three than Biden was polling before he dropped out of the race.
Two-thirds of voters polled said they wanted abortion to be always or mostly legal and a majority—56%—said transgender people should be accepted for having “the gender with which they identify.”
A majority said the U.S. should pay more attention to problems at home than those overseas.
