Trump, Biden in tight race in Pennsylvania: poll

Former President Trump and President Biden are locked in a “virtual dead heat” in Pennsylvania, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Forty-seven percent of registered voters in the Keystone State said they would support the former president in a hypothetical matchup in 2024, while 46 percent said they would back the sitting president, the poll found.

Pennsylvania Republicans and Democrats skewed heavily in favor of their respective candidates in a Trump-Biden rematch, with 89 percent of registered GOP voters saying they would support Trump and 94 percent of registered Democratic voters saying the same of Biden.

However, independents in the poll favored the former president in a hypothetical matchup. While 37 percent said they would support Biden, 51 percent said they would back Trump.

The former president is leading the ever-growing field of Republican candidates, receiving 49 percent support among Pennsylvania GOP voters in the survey. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis trails behind in second with 25 percent support, while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence are tied in third with 5 percent each.

The only other candidates with more than 1 percent support were former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who each polled at 4 percent.

“Though battling fierce legal headwinds, Trump leaves the rest of the GOP pack (including Ron DeSantis) looking like ‘also rans’ and is running neck and neck with President Biden,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said in a news release.

On the Democratic side, Biden holds a substantial lead over two candidates who have launched long-shot bids for the Democratic nomination, the Quinnipiac survey found.

While the sitting president is polling at 71 percent among Pennsylvania Democratic voters, anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. garnered 17 percent support and self-help author Marianne Williamson received 5 percent support.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted June 22-26 with 1,584 registered voters in Pennsylvania and had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.