PITTSBURGH, Pa. — A new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris holding an edge over former President Trump in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
A Monmouth University survey of Pennsylvania voters released Wednesday found 48% of respondents would definitely or probably support Harris for president, while 45% said the same about Trump.
The poll, conducted from Sept. 19 to 23, also shows Harris holding a four-point lead over Trump among people who say they are very motivated to vote in the White House election.
The survey is the latest to suggest a close race is expected in Pennsylvania, where 19 electoral votes are at stake. Of the seven key battleground states that determined Biden's narrow victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Pennsylvania is the biggest and will likely determine whether Harris or Trump succeeds Biden in the White House.
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at IBEW Local 5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 2, 2024. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
Pennsylvania, along with Michigan and Wisconsin, form the Democratic Party's so-called “Blue Wall” and had been a reliable Democratic winner in presidential elections for 25 years until Trump narrowly won all three states in 2016. But Biden narrowly won all three states four years ago.
Both Harris and Trump have made multiple stops in Pennsylvania this summer, and while super PACs allied with both campaigns are pouring money into all seven battleground states, they are spending more on advertising in Pennsylvania than in any other battleground state. And both campaigns are spending more on future airtime in the Keystone State than any other battleground state, according to numbers from AdImpact, the nation's top ad tracking company.
The poll was released hours before Harris is due to return to Pennsylvania, a must-win state for the Democratic presidential nominee, in what her campaign is billing as a major speech on the economy.
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The vice president, in his speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, is expected to make his most substantive comments on the economy since replacing Biden as the leading 2024 Democratic presidential candidate about two months ago.
A Harris campaign official said the vice president would emphasize her “pragmatic” approach to the economy and offer “practical, real-world solutions.”
The official added that Harris, who Trump has dubbed “Comrade Kamala,” would describe herself as a capitalist who “understands the limitations of government and has always sought to embrace good ideas wherever they come from and harness the power of innovation.”
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks about tax law and manufacturing at the Johnnie Mercer Theater Civic Center, Tuesday, September 24, 2024, in Savannah, Georgia. (AP/Evan Vucci)
Her speech came the day before the former president delivered what was billed as a major economic speech in the battleground state of Georgia, in which he promised tax cuts for US-based manufacturers.
With less than six weeks until Election Day on November 5, and early voting and absentee voting available in about two dozen states, nearly every poll shows the economy remains Americans' top concern.
This comes as the country's economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession continues. Inflation remains a top concern among voters.
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Trump continues to hold the lead when it comes to which presidential candidate would have better control over the economy, but the margin of support for Trump over Harris varies widely across polls.
A post-debate poll by The New York Times/Siena College gave the former president a 13-point lead over the vice president, and a post-debate ABC News-Ipsos poll gave him a 7-point lead.
But Trump's advantage over Harris on the economy is just 5 points in the latest Fox News poll and just 2 points in the AP/NORC poll.
In Pennsylvania, a new Monmouth University poll found Trump leading Harris by 3 points when asked which candidate they trusted more to manage the economy.
Vice President Kamala Harris (R) and former President Donald Trump shake hands during the presidential debate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday, September 10, 2024. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Getty Images)
According to a senior campaign aide, Harris is expected to unveil several new manufacturing proposals in her speech, emphasizing cost-cutting, investment in American innovation and entrepreneurship and a goal of “leading the world in the industries of the future.”
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The official added that Harris is expected to argue that “for Donald Trump, our economy works best for the people who own the skyscrapers, not the people who build them, not the people who wire them, not the people who mop the floors.”
She will likely repeat her accusation that Trump has no intention of growing the middle class because he is only interested in helping himself and billionaires like him.
Trump has repeatedly slammed Harris' economic plan as incompetent and potentially dangerous.
“If you think four years of a Harris-Biden administration would be bad, it would be nothing compared to four years of a Harris-Waltz administration,” the Trump campaign argued.
Fox News' Mark Meredith contributed to this report.
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