Donald Trump leads Joe Biden nationally and in 7 swing states: Poll

Former President Trump is leading President Biden nationally and in seven battleground states, according to a survey published Thursday.

The Emerson College poll, sponsored by Democrats for the Next Generation, found 46 percent of registered voters say they support Trump, compared to 42 percent who chose Biden and 12 percent that are undecided. The pollster noted, however, that Biden’s support dipped by 2 points since the poll was taken earlier this month, while Trump’s support stayed the same.

“Recent polling shows Biden losing support more significantly than Trump gaining it since the attempted assassination,” Spencer Kimball, director of Emerson College polling, said in a statement. “This raises questions about whether Biden’s decline is still influenced by the debate or if Trump has reached his support ceiling.”

The survey was conducted after the attempted assassination of Trump over the weekend, where a gunman took aim at the former president during a rally in Pennsylvania and grazed his ear with a bullet. The gunman and one rally attendee were killed, and two others were critically injured, according to the Secret Service.

The poll also noted that since March, Trump has gained 1 point in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and 2 points in Arizona. He has lost 1 point in Michigan.

The closest race, according to the poll, is in Michigan, where Trump leads with 45 percent of support and Biden has 42 percent of support. Another 13 of respondents said they are undecided.

Trump leads Biden by 5 percentage points in the states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada and by 6 points in Georgia. He also has a 7-point lead in both North Carolina and Arizona, per the survey.

Biden carried the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia in 2020 and narrowly lost North Carolina.

The poll also comes after Biden’s shaky debate performance last month, which prompted concerns among Democrats and calls for him to step aside from the race. The survey found 36 percent of Democratic primary voters said he should withdraw, while 64 percent said he should stay the course.

The national poll was conducted July 15-16 among 2,000 registered voters with a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The state polls include responses from 1,000 registered voters per state and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points per state. 

Story was updated at 3:44 p.m. EDT