Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Trump are locked in a competitive race for the White House a little more than five weeks out from Election Day.
While national polling averages give Biden a high single-digit advantage over Trump before the Nov. 3 contest, the next president will be decided by the Electoral College, not the popular vote. And state-based polls paint a tighter picture.
According to a slate of new Reuters and Ipsos battleground polls published Friday, Biden and Trump are tied in Florida and Pennsylvania, 47% support apiece among likely voters in both states as of Sept. 16. Meanwhile, in Arizona, they are separated by a single percentage point as Biden leads ahead of Trump, 47% to 46%.
Elsewhere on the electoral map, Biden has a tad more breathing room.
The two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator has a 3-point edge in North Carolina, 49% to 46%. And he has a 5-point buffer in both Michigan and Wisconsin, 49% to 44% and 48% to 43%, respectively.
The polls indicating that Trump is within the margin of error is good news for the president, considering his underdog status at the start of the fall fight. But he did win all six states and their collective 101 electoral votes in 2016, narrowing his path back to the White House.
Biden has an average lead of 0.8 of a point in North Carolina and 1.3 points in Florida, according to RealClearPolitics. Those states can be compared to Arizona, where he’s in front by an average of 3.2 points, as well as ahead by an average of 4.3 points in Pennsylvania, 5.2 points in Michigan, and 6.6 points in Wisconsin.
