Washington DC: Less than a year before election day, recent polls indicate that former President Donald Trump is leading incumbent President Joe Biden in key swing states that will decide the fate of the 2024 presidential race, The Hill reported.
Trump leads Biden in hypothetical match-ups both with and without third-party options on the ballot in states including Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, according to fresh polling.
Notably, Biden carried each of those states in 2020, and Trump will need to flip at least a few of those states if he is to win in 2024.
While these numbers indicate that Trump is an “overwhelming favourite”, Biden still has much work to do to improve his standing, The Hill reported.
A CNN poll released this week showed Trump leading Biden by 5 percentage points in Georgia, a state Biden carried in 2020 by roughly 12,000 votes. The poll also found Trump leading Biden by 10 points in Michigan, where Biden won by about 1,55,000 votes in 2020.
The poll found majorities in both states–54 per cent in Georgia and 56 per cent in Michigan–believe Biden’s policies have worsened economic conditions as Biden struggles to sell what aides believe is a strong economy to voters.
A Morning Consult poll released this week had similarly sour results for Biden.
That survey found Biden trailing Trump in several crucial swing states: by 11 points in North Carolina, by 7 points in Georgia, by 6 points in Wisconsin, by 5 points in Nevada, by 4 points in Michigan and by 3 points in Arizona, The Hill reported.
Trump has cemented his status as the front-runner for the GOP nomination, crossing the 50 per cent threshold in a recent Iowa survey conducted by pollster J. Ann Selzer.
Trump has yet to see any drop-off in support, even as he testified in a New York City fraud trial, which has prompted backlash and comparisons to dictators for his rhetoric and campaign proposals, and as he continues to face dozens of criminal charges, according to The Hill.
Meanwhile, Biden is struggling to sell voters on his accomplishments, even as aides believe they are directly improving Americans’ lives. The White House repeatedly points to low unemployment and strong economic growth that have defied expert predictions of a recession to argue Biden’s economic plan is working.
The president frequently touts the effects of his major legislation, such as the CHIPS and Science Act, leading to major investments, The Hill reported.
But President Biden is also facing divisions within his party over the Israel-Hamas war and on immigration, and his approval rating has hovered around 40 per cent for months.
Biden has racked up millions in donations at recent high-dollar fundraisers as he builds a campaign war chest that will be used to hammer Trump on the airwaves for much of 2024 on his record on abortion, democracy, the climate, guns and more.
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