2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads U.S. President Donald Trump by nine percentage points in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a new poll released on Tuesday ahead of their first debate.
Biden’s support stands at 54 percent to Trump’s 45 percent among Pennsylvania’s likely voters and 54 percent to 44 percent among its registered voters, the Washington Post-ABC News poll showed.
Less than five weeks until Election Day, the poll found 53 percent of the Keystone State’s registered voters in favor of Trump’s management of the economy, but 57 percent disapprove of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The overall approval rating for Trump in Pennsylvania among registered voters is 43 percent positive and 55 percent negative, with 49 percent saying they disapprove “strongly.”
The poll was conducted on Sept. 21-26 among 567 likely voters in state with an error margin of plus/minus 5 percentage points. Error margins were larger among subgroups.
Pennsylvania, where early voting has already begun, is widely seen as a pivotal swing state this November. Both Trump and Biden have made frequent campaign stops in the state.
In 2016, Trump stunned then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton by winning Pennsylvania by less than one percentage point, paving the way for his White House victory.
Biden, former U.S. vice president and longtime U.S. senator, has emphasized the “Scranton vs. Park Avenue” message to appeal to working-class voters, which points to his Pennsylvania boyhood home and Trump’s adult life in Manhattan, New York City.
The two candidates will meet in Cleveland, Ohio for the first 2020 presidential debate Tuesday night on topics such as their records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, and race and violence in U.S. cities.
According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Biden leads Trump by 6.1 percentage points nationally and 3.6 points in top battleground states, as of Tuesday. The gaps have been narrowing.
