Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are virtually tied in the key swing state of North Carolina, according a new poll from Elon University.
The GOP presidential nominee receives support from 44 percent of likely voters, with his Democratic opponent at 43 percent. The results resemble a string of surveys dating to mid-August that shows the two candidates within four percentage points of each other.
Libertarian party nominee Gary Johnson registers six percent in the poll, with seven percent undecided. Green party candidate Jill Stein is not on the ballot in North Carolina.
The state, with 15 electoral votes, is one of several key prizes that has tightened in recent weeks. The RealClearPolitics average of polls there shows Clinton with just a 0.6 percentage point advantage, which resembles toss-up races in Florida (Trump +0.9) and Ohio (Trump +1.2). But the Republican still lags in other critical swing states, one of which he almost certainly has to capture in order to surpass 270 electoral votes. He trails in Virginia by an average of 3.5 points, in Michigan by 5.2 points, and in Pennsylvania—a pivotal GOP target that is also host to a massive Senate contest—by 6.6 points.
