WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in six battleground states in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, according to a Wall Street Journal poll released on Wednesday that cited concerns about the economy and Biden’s performance.
Trump garnered a lead of between 2 and 8 percentage points among voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina on a ballot that included third-party and independent candidates, the Journal said. The results were similar in a one-on-one matchup with Biden, it said.
In Wisconsin, a seventh state where the contest is expected to be close, Biden was ahead by 3 points on a multiple candidate ballot and tied in a head-to-head contest with Trump, the Journal said.
The Biden re-election campaign is grappling with voter concerns about the U.S. economy despite job growth, healthy spending and better-than-expected GDP increases, an issue that has vexed economists and Democratic political strategists.
In the Journal poll, negative views of Biden’s job performance outweigh positive views by at least 16 percentage points and more than 20 points in four of the states. Trump got an unfavorable job rating for his time in the White House in only one of the seven states – Arizona.
Trump was viewed as having the better physical and mental fitness for the job by 48% of respondents, compared to 28% for Biden, the poll showed.
The survey of 4,200 votes – 600 in each of the seven states – was conducted March 17-24. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points for the full sample and 4 points for results in individual states, the Journal said.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
