Polls show a close race in Pennsylvania between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, with results roughly the same as when President Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee.
A Commonwealth Foundation poll of 800 voters conducted after Harris became the front-runner for the Democratic nomination found that Indicated In a race that includes third-party candidates, she and Trump are tied at 44%. Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is in third place with 6%, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Libertarian Party’s Chase Oliver are tied at 1%.
Three percent of respondents were undecided.
In a hypothetical two-way vote, Harris and Trump were tied at 47 percent and 46 percent, respectively, with an additional 4 percent choosing “other” and 3 percent choosing “none of the above.”
The margin of victory remains the same as the margin of victory between Trump and Biden in a June Commonwealth Poll, when Biden was seen as the Democratic front-runner. Taken In head-to-head polls, 45% approved, compared with 44% for Trump.
Among those who had not chosen either Trump or Harris in the latest poll, 15% chose Trump, 24% chose Harris and 61% were undecided.
Extrapolating these numbers to the overall sample gives Harris 48 percent and Trump 47 percent.
Interestingly, only 42% of voters believe Harris should be the Democratic nominee, and while half of voters believe someone other than Harris should be considered, 8% are unsure whether Harris should be the nominee.
But a majority of voters, 58%, believe President Joe Biden should serve out the remainder of his term. Just 28% said Harris should take over for Biden’s remaining five months. The remaining 14% were unsure.
In announcing the poll, Commonwealth Foundation senior vice president Eric Telford emphasized that “wallet issues” are Pennsylvania voters’ top concern heading into the election.
“As candidates expect to crisscross the state over the next three months, they would be wise to focus on voters’ top concerns: household finances issues such as inflation and rising energy costs,” Telford said in announcing the poll.
Harris’ campaign has made abortion a top priority since she entered the race. Harris mentioned the issue at the start of her campaign but did not mention inflation. Meanwhile, her campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon mentioned only the issue in a memo to campaign supporters arguing that Harris would win the election.
The poll was conducted July 23-25 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points.
