Republican presidential candidate and former United States (US) president Donald Trump is ahead of Democratic presidential candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris in three states of the Sun Belt region of the United States, polls on Monday (Sept 23) said.
According to the polls by The New York Times (NYT) and Siena College, voters across the Sun Belt said that Trump improved their lives when he was president, and have expressed worries that Harris would not do so. …CONTINUE READING
A look at the statistics
The polls showed that Trump gained a lead in Arizona and remained ahead in Georgia. He had lost these states to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
However, in North Carolina, which has not voted for a Democrat since 2008, Harris trailed Trump by just a narrow margin.
The polls of the above states were taken from September 17-21 and presented further evidence that in a sharply divided nation, the presidential contest was shaping up to be one of the tightest in history, a report by The NYT on Monday said.
The polls showed that in Arizona, 50 per cent of the voters would vote for Trump while 45 per cent would vote for Harris. In Georgia, 49 per cent would vote for Trump while 45 per cent would vote for Harris.
But in North Carolina, Trump has a slim lead over Harris- with 49 per cent wanting to vote for the Republican candidate while 47 per cent are in favour of the Democratic candidate.
The polls also said that about 15 per cent of the electorate in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina declared themselves undecided or not definitely decided, leaving open the possibility that they could still change their minds.
Harris faring much better than Biden in Sun Belt states
These polls by The NYT and Siena College came as Harris has been enjoying a surge of contributions and enthusiasm among Democrats since her debate with Trump earlier this month.
The NYT report pointed out that Harris continued to fare much better against Trump in these three Sun Belt states than Biden did before he dropped out of the presidential race.
Citing analysts, the report said that while these three states have drawn a great deal of attention from both the Trump and Harris camps, North Carolina and Georgia are especially essential to Trump’s hopes of returning to the White House.
(With inputs from agencies)
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