Campaign

Biden leads Trump by 7 points in Pennsylvania: poll

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Trump by 7 points in Pennsylvania in a new USA Today-Suffolk University poll released Wednesday.

About 49 percent of likely voters surveyed said they would back the former vice president, while roughly 42 percent said they would support Trump. Just under 4 percent of likely voters say they are undecided in the final sprint to Election Day.

Biden is buoyed by a net-positive favorability rating, with 49 percent of voters saying they have a favorable view of him and 44 percent saying they view him unfavorably. Meanwhile, Trump is underwater, with just 42 percent of voters saying they have a favorable opinion of the president and 52 percent saying they have an unfavorable view.

Twenty-six percent of voters in the Keystone State told pollsters that “bringing the country together” is their top issue, followed by 23 percent who said jobs and the economy and 22 percent said the coronavirus pandemic.

A majority, 58 percent, said the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court makes “no difference” in how they plan to vote.

Pennsylvania is shaping up to be a top battleground in the home stretch to Election Day after Trump narrowly won the state by less than 1 percent in 2016, the first time a Republican presidential candidate won there since 1988.

The RealClearPolitics polling average shows Biden up in the Keystone State by 3.7 points. 

Both Biden and Trump are battling hard to win Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, with the former vice president looking to tout his Scranton roots and the president trying to maintain support among the same white working-class voters who propelled him to victory four years ago.

Trump held a campaign rally Tuesday night in Erie, Pa., while former President Obama, Biden’s most prominent surrogate, will hold his first in-person rally Wednesday in Philadelphia.

The USA Today-Suffolk University poll surveyed 500 likely Pennsylvania voters from Oct. 15 to 19 and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.