A new poll in the battleground state shows former President Donald Trump still has a slight lead over President Biden in Michigan as primary voters prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday.
Among registered voters in the Great Lakes state, Mr. Trump leads Mr. Biden 46% to 44%, but 10% are undecided. According to Emerson College Poll/The Hill investigation.
The poll revealed a large gender gap between supporters of the two presidential candidates. Michigan men favored Trump over Biden 53% to 41%, while women favored Biden over Trump 46% to 41%.
Independents defeated the 77-year-old former president by a six-point margin, 43% to 37%.
Adding in third-party candidates, Mr. Trump’s approval rating was 42% to Mr. Biden’s 39%, while environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had 6% and Green Party candidate Jill. Mr. Stein and academic Cornel West each had 1%.
Monday’s poll showed that the lead had narrowed from January’s Emerson/The Hill poll, which showed Mr. Trump leading Mr. Biden by 6 points, 47% to 41%.
In 2016, Mr. Trump became the first Republican to win Michigan since George W. Bush in 1988, and four years later, Mr. Biden took the state back to Democrats.
“Michigan is a purple state,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “This state will be purple from now until November.”
Trump leads Biden by an average of 5.1 points in Michigan. According to RealClearPolitics’ latest poll tally..
Michigan is scheduled to hold its Republican and Democratic presidential primaries on Tuesday, and the state Republican Party will organize its caucuses on Saturday.
In the Republican primary, Trump led former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley by a 49-point margin, 69% to 20%, with 11% undecided.
When undecided voters were forced to make a choice, Mr. Trump’s approval rating rose to 76% and Ms. Haley’s approval rating rose to 24%.
In the Democratic primary, Biden has a 75% approval rating, with 9% saying they would vote “unconditionally” and 5% backing Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota).
When asked undecided voters, Biden received 77% support, but 16% said they were “uncommitted” and 7% said they would vote for Phillips.
Michigan progressives led by activist Leila Elabd, sister of Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), protested White House policy on the Israel-Hamas war and called it “irresponsible” in the primary. He has led efforts to get people to vote.
Biden allies have been meeting with Arab and Muslim leaders in Michigan this month to try to de-escalate the situation, and the president has begun to take a tougher stance on some of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. .
Michigan has the largest Arab population population of any state in the countryaccounting for 2.1% of the demographic.
An effort to write “ceasefire” during last month’s unapproved New Hampshire Democratic primary garnered 1.2% support, compared with the percentage of posts for Haley (3.8%) and Trump (1.7%). There were also few.
Michigan voters rated the economy (31%) as the top issue in 2024, followed by immigration (13%), threats to democracy (12%) and health care (10%).
“Michigan voters who say the economy is the biggest issue facing them split support for Trump over Biden, 56% to 33%,” said Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling. For immigrants, the ratio is 86% to 7%. “People say Biden is a threat to democracy, 76% to 19%.”
The Emerson College/The Hill poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters in Michigan between February 20 and February 24. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
