Joe Biden and President Trump are statistically tied in traditionally conservative Alaska, according to a new poll.
The White House incumbent is 3 percentage points ahead of Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, 48% to 45%, a Public Policy Polling survey released Thursday found. But the study, by a Democratic-linked firm, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points, meaning the two candidates are technically running in a dead heat.
Biden, the two-term vice president and 36-year Delaware senator, is helped in his race for Alaska’s three electoral votes by his popularity among independents. He leads Trump with the group, 52% to 39%.
The Trump campaign will be disappointed by the results since the president won Alaska in 2016 by almost 15 points over then-Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee that cycle, notched up more than 5% of the vote in the state. Despite its independent streak, Alaska has also supported every Republican nominee since 1968, backing Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, its second presidential election since statehood in 1959.
And Republicans’ Alaska woes aren’t isolated to the presidential level.
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, first elected to the chamber in 2014, only has a 5-point advantage on independent challenger Al Gross, a commercial fisherman and doctor, Public Policy Polling researchers said. Sullivan’s lead is boosted by Gross’s lack of name recognition.
GOP Rep. Don Young, the longest-serving member of Congress, is struggling, too, against independent small business owner and educator Alyse Galvin. Young, who came to the House in a March 1973 special election, is behind Galvin by 2 points.
Public Policy Polling interviewed 1,081 Alaska voters between July 7 and July 8 for the survey. The findings have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.
