Harris leading Trump by 3 points in battleground Pennsylvania survey

Vice President Harris is leading President Trump by 3 points in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to postdebate polling released Monday.

The USA Today/Suffolk University survey shows Harris with 49 percent support among likely Keystone State voters, outpacing the former president’s 46 percent. The Democratic nominee’s advantage, however, falls within the poll’s margin of error.

Harris also held a 5-point edge among independents, garnering 43 percent support to Trump’s 38 percent, according to the survey unveiled a week after the party nominees faced off in a debate moderated by ABC News in Philadelphia.

Trump had a double-digit lead with male voters, bringing in 53 percent support compared to Harris’s 41 percent. The vice president, however, boasts a 17-point lead among female voters in the state, outpacing the former president 56 percent to 39 percent, the poll found.

Harris also held a higher favorability rating within the swing state that carries 19 Electoral College votes; about 49 percent of respondents said they had a favorable view of her, while 47 percent had an unfavorable view of the vice president. Roughly 45 percent held a favorable view of Trump, while 54 percent said the opposite.

The statewide survey was conducted Sept. 11-15 among 500 likely voters in the state. The margin of error was 4.4 percentage points.

The Democratic nominee also held a slight lead in Pennsylvania’s two bellwether counties, according to another set of postdebate surveys conducted by USA Today/Suffolk. In Northampton County, Harris garnered 50 percent support to Trump’s 45 percent, also within the margin of error.

President Biden carried the county by only 1 percent in 2020, flipping it blue after Trump won Northampton’s support during his 2016 bid against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Harris also holds a 4-point advantage in Erie County, getting 48 percent support compared to the former president’s 44 percent. Similar to Northampton, Biden won the county in 2020 after Trump’s edged Clinton by 2 points there in 2016.

Both county polls were conducted in the days after the debate among 300 likely voters, with a margin of error of 5.7 percentage points

In The HIll/Decision Desk HQ’s polling index of the state, Harris is leading Trump by less than 1 point — 48.1 percent to 47.7 percent.