NEW YORK CITY, New York — New polling out on Monday from Boston’s Emerson College shows Republican presidential nominee in solid shape in both Pennsylvania and Michigan, within striking distance of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
In Pennsylvania—which is widely considered perhaps the bellwether for the 2016 presidential election—Trump only trails Clinton by three points. There, Clinton’s 46 percent is slightly better than Trump’s 43 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson got seven percent of the vote and the Green Party’s Jill Stein got two percent. The poll, which consisted of 800 likely voters, has a 3.4 percent margin of error—meaning the gap between Trump and Clinton in the Pennsylvania poll is statistically negligible.
In Michigan, Clinton’s 45 percent leads Trump’s 40 percent by just five points—only 1.6 percent outside the 3.4 percent margin of error. There, Johnson got 10 percent and Stein got three percent, in a poll that also surveyed 800 likely voters.
That Trump is this close to Clinton in two states Republicans haven’t won in decades has got Clinton’s campaign a bit worried. Sources close to both candidates confirm to Breitbart News there will be aggressive campaigning by the candidates and their running mates in both states—Pennsylvania and Michigan—leading up to the general election in November, and that both campaigns are going to fight for both states.
Trump’s team views Pennsylvania as a particularly appealing prize, and high-ranking Trump campaign sources consider it in the inner circle of states on which to heavily focus. But Trump’s strength so far in Michigan—where both Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won upset victories in the primaries, Trump over the GOP establishment and Sanders over Clinton—has Trump’s team emboldened and Clinton’s team rushing to the upper midwest to play defense.
Trump’s team also sees a potential opportunity in Minnesota, where Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook went this weekend to the Minnesota State Fair to play defense in a state Republicans haven’t won since Richard Nixon’s reelection in 1972. That Mook would spend valuable time in Minnesota is telling about how the Clinton campaign, while publicly bold and strengthened by a permanent political class backing media establishment that has essentially written Trump off, is telling.
Michigan’s 16 electoral votes, and Pennsylvania’s 20 would be huge pickups for Trump over Clinton if he can get them. Minnesota, meanwhile, has 10 electoral votes–and Washington state, where Trump will be on Tuesday night, has 12 electoral votes.
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