Harris and Trump in fierce battle as battleground states tip the scales – Firstpost

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are virtually tied in seven key battleground states just two weeks before the U.S. presidential election, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll.

Harris leads Trump 51-47% in Georgia, while Trump trails Harris 49-46% in Arizona, both within the poll’s 4.5% margin of error. Harris, who emerged as the party’s nominee after US President Joe Biden stepped aside over the summer months, also has an advantage in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where she will campaign with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney.

Trump led in North Carolina and was tied 48-48 with Harris in Nevada, according to the poll of 5,016 likely voters surveyed from September 30 to October 15. The former president will hold a rally in North Carolina later on Monday following an investigation into the recent damage from Hurricane Helene.

Also read: Trump overtakes Harris, has 4% more chance of winning, according to the latest American presidential election forecast

The 78-year-old Trump is making his third consecutive bid for the White House after losing to Biden in 2020. He continues to falsely accuse widespread voter fraud and faces federal and state criminal charges for attempting to overturn the election results, among other charges. Trump has denied all allegations.

Harris, 60, is a former local prosecutor, attorney general and U.S. senator who is trying to rebuild the party’s diverse coalition of young voters, women and people of color and pick up some Republicans disillusioned with Trump.

Monday’s findings echoed other recent polls showing a neck-and-neck race in the seven battleground states, with Harris leading nationally in some surveys.

Overall, 49 percent of likely voters said they supported Harris and 48 percent backed Trump, the Post poll found. Reuters/Ipsos polls last week showed Harris with a stable, marginal lead of 45%-42% over Trump.

However, state-by-state results from the Electoral College will determine the winner of November’s election. The seven battleground states are likely to be decisive, with surveys of their likely voters providing an indication of the race so far.

Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to tackle key economic issues, although Harris gets slightly better marks on elements such as middle-class taxes, according to a new poll.

A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About seven in ten say the country is going in the wrong direction.

But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost an advantage for the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season, above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.

“Do I trust Trump on the economy? No. I trust he will give tax cuts to his friends like Elon Musk,” said Janice Tosto, a 59-year-old woman from Philadelphia and self-employed.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found that neither Harris nor Trump had a clear advantage in dealing with “the economy and jobs.” But this poll asked more specific questions about whether voters trusted Trump or Harris to better handle the costs of housing, jobs and unemployment, taxes on the middle class, the cost of groceries and gas, and tariffs.

With input from authorities.

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