A poll released Thursday showed former president Donald Trump leading President Joe Biden in seven swing states, in the latest alarm bell for the incumbent president in polling.
Respondents in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin told pollsters in a survey from Morning Consult and Bloomberg that they would choose Trump over Biden on a ballot where the two appear, along with expected third-party candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West. On that ballot, Trump's smallest lead was in Pennsylvania, where the gap between him and Biden was 1 point, and his largest lead was in North Carolina, where the gap was 11 points.
The margin of error for the poll, which surveyed 4,935 registered voters across the swing states, ranged 3 points to 5 points among the 7 states, and Trump's lead was within the margin of error in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Biden still trailed when the pollsters removed third-party candidates from the ballot, but doing so did bring Trump's lead in Georgia to within the margin of error.
About 60 percent of the voters in each swing state said the issues of the economy and health care were "very important" to them when deciding whom to vote for in the 2024 election. Respondents in all seven swing states trusted Trump over Biden on the economy. In five of the seven swing states, respondents trusted Biden more on health care—Trump led on the issue in Georgia and North Carolina.
This poll is just the latest poor result for Biden. He hit an all-time low approval rating of 37 percent in a CNN poll earlier this month, and the RealClearPolitics polling average has him at just under 40 percent approval.
A Wall Street Journal poll from last week saw Trump beating Biden in a head-to-head matchup, but it also indicated that Biden would hold a 1-point lead in the race if Trump is convicted of one of the charges against him.