President Trump’s reelection campaign is facing a tough battle in three states he won handily in 2016, according to a new poll.
The New York Time-Siena College poll released Thursday revealed a competitive race between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in Texas and Georgia, states typically considered GOP strongholds, as well as in Iowa.
In Texas, the president leads Biden by single digits, 46 percent to 43 percent, among likely voters — a lead that falls within the poll’s margin of error. Nearly half of those respondents voting for Biden (45 percent) said their vote was largely a vote against Trump; just 18 percent of Trump voters said the same about voting against Biden.
The president and Biden are tied in Georgia, according to the poll, at 45 percent, while Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) leads Democrat Jon Ossoff in the state’s high-profile Senate race by 3 points, 41 to 38 percent.
And in Iowa, Trump trails Biden by 3 percentage points, 45 percent to 42 percent. The poll, however, reveals a commanding lead for the former vice president among women in the state, 50 percent to 36 percent.
Biden held leads with female voters in both Texas and Georgia as well, though they are not as stark in either state.
The polls indicate the president could be forced to spend valuable campaign funding in states where Republicans typically do not have to invest in advertising. Texas, for example, boasts numerous media markets and is seen as an expensive advertising investment.
The new poll surveyed 523 likely voters in Georgia with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points; in Texas the survey pool was 653 respondents with a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points; and in Iowa the poll surveyed 501 likely voters with a margin of error equaling 4.99 percentage points.