A new poll shows former President Trump leading President Biden nationally and in seven battleground states.
Emerson College voteA poll sponsored by the Next Generation Democrats group and released Thursday found that 46% of registered voters said they supported Trump, while 42% chose Biden and 12% were undecided. But the pollster noted that Biden’s approval rating had dropped two points since a survey earlier this month, while Trump’s remained unchanged.
“Recent polls have shown that Biden’s approval rating has dropped significantly more than Trump’s since the assassination attempt,” said Spencer Kimball, polling director at Emerson College. In a statement“This raises the question of whether Biden’s drop in approval ratings is still being affected by the debates, or whether Trump has hit the ceiling of his approval ratings.”
The investigation comes after an assassination attempt on President Trump over the weekend when a gunman aimed a bullet at the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania, grazing him in the ear. The Secret Service said the gunman and one rally attendee were killed and two others were seriously injured.
The poll also noted that since March, Trump has gained one point in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and two points in Arizona, but lost one point in Michigan.
The poll shows the closest race is in the battleground state of Michigan, where Trump leads with 45% support, followed by Biden on 42%. Thirteen percent of respondents said they were still undecided.
Trump leads Biden by five points in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada, and by six points in Georgia. He also has seven-point leads in North Carolina and Arizona, according to the poll.
Biden won battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia in 2020, but narrowly lost North Carolina.
The poll comes after Biden’s shaky debate performance last month, which has sparked concern among Democrats and prompted calls for him to step aside. The survey found that 36% of Democratic primary voters said Biden should drop out, while 64% said he should stay in the race.
The national poll was conducted July 15-16 among 2,000 registered voters and has a confidence interval of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
