Former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead against President Trump fell by 2 points among registered voters in Pennsylvania, a battleground state Trump won by 0.7 points against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Published on Thursday, Franklin and Marshall College’s latest survey shows Biden’s total falling 1 point since July to 49%, while Trump gained 1 point, rising to 42%. The total change of 2 points is within the poll’s margin of error of 5 points.
The poll surveyed 681 registered Pennsylvania voters between Aug. 17 and 23, including 321 Democrats, 272 Republicans, and 88 independents.
G. Terry Madonna, who directed the poll, said this gap was likely to continue to shrink depending on the state of the economy and the coronavirus recovery.
[Read more: Biden’s liberal climate policies feared by unions in Pennsylvania]
Compared with 2016, fewer registered voters expressed support for a third-party candidate or claimed to be undecided this year.
While 31% of registered voters identified the coronavirus as the foremost problem facing the state, nearly half said they believed that overall, the state was “headed in the right direction.”
Concern over the economy and personal finances nearly doubled from 12% in July to 22% in August, and people are less optimistic about their finances than they were in January.
According to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, in Pennsylvania, Biden leads Trump by 5.8 points.
