Trump leads Biden by 2 points in Pennsylvania poll

Former President Trump leads President Biden by 2 points in a hypothetical race among Pennsylvania voters, according to a new poll.

O Marist Research, released on Wednesday, found that Trump received 47% support, compared to 45% for President Biden. Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy won just 3%, while 2% said they were still undecided.

The two-point lead is within the poll’s margin of error.

Trump leads Biden by a similar margin among independent voters in the Keystone State, with 42 percent backing the presumptive Republican nominee, 40 percent backing Biden and 8 percent backing Kennedy, according to the poll.

Pennsylvania, which Biden narrowly won in 2020, will be a critical battleground state for candidates to secure victory in the November rematch.

The poll also records a drop in the incumbent’s support among black voters, although he is still ahead of Trump by a significant margin – 68% to 23%, respectively. In 2020, however, the overwhelming majority of Black voters in the state voted for Biden over the former president, 92% to 7%.

Biden also lost support among voters under 45 – a group he won in 2020 by 24 percentage points. Now, he leads by 2 points, 46% against Trump’s 44%.

At the same time, the former president won voters aged 45 and over by 12 percentage points in 2020. In this poll, however, he leads by just 3 points, 48 ​​percent to Biden’s 45 percent.

“Formerly a Democratic stronghold, Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes are up for grabs,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, said in a statement.

“Although Obama won Pennsylvania easily in 2008 and 2012, Trump broke the “blue wall” in 2016 against Clinton before Biden ‘held the line’ for Democrats in 2020. Now, there are no guarantees for either candidate,” Miringoff added.

The national polling average from Hill/Decision Desk HQ echoes the Pennsylvania poll, with Biden trailing Trump by 2 points – 41.8% to 39.8% – and Kennedy getting just 8% of the vote. The polling index in Pennsylvania leaves the current and former president practically tied with Trump at 41.6%, Biden at 41.3% and Kennedy at 8.1%.

The Marist Poll, conducted June 3-6, included 1,181 registered voters in Pennsylvania and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story