Former President Donald Trump has a three-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in North Carolina, and is on her heels in typically blue Virginia, according to a Rasmussen Reports/American Thinker poll.
The poll published on Friday shows Trump besting Harris 49 percent to 46 percent among 1,078 likely North Carolina voters.
A plurality of 42 percent of likely voters in North Carolina said the economy is the most critical issue for them. Another 17 percent pointed to border security as the number one issue, and abortion landed in third place at 12 percent.
Trump carried North Carolina in 2020 by 1.3 percent after winning it by 3.6 percent over twice-failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Turning to Virginia, Trump trails Harris by just a three-point margin. She garners 49 percent of support from the 1,144 likely voters to his 46 percent — a poor sign for Democrats.
In 2020, Biden comfortably won Virginia by 10.1 percentage points, while it went to Clinton by 5.4 percent in 2016. This followed wins by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008. The last Republican to win the Old Dominion was former President George W. Bush.
Trump told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle in December that he aimed to expand the universe of battleground states to include blue-leaning Virginia, Minnesota, and New Jersey, to name a few.
“I’m going to do rallies, I’m going to do speeches, I’m going to work them,” Trump said at the time. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to work them as hard as I work Pennsylvania, where I’m doing very well.”
Like North Carolina, the economy is the number one issue for a plurality of voters in Virginia. Of the respondents, 32 percent say the economy is paramount, followed by border security (17 percent) and abortion (13 percent).
The survey also gauged the state of the race in Michigan among 1,086 likely voters. Trump and Harris are tied at 48 percent apiece in the Wolverine State. A plurality of 35 percent of respondents identified the economy as the most pressing issue. Border security and abortion both followed at 15 percent.
The margin of error for each state is ±3 percentage points and sampling was done between September 19-22.
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