Trump holds 9-point lead over Biden in Pennsylvania: poll

Former President Trump holds a 9-point lead over President Biden in the swing state of Pennsylvania, according to a new poll.

The new Emerson College poll found Trump leads Biden 45 percent to 36 percent among Pennsylvania voters. However, 11 percent said they plan to vote for someone besides the two front-runners and another 8 percent are undecided, leaving room for the candidates to lose or gain support.

Only half of those supporting Trump said they could not think of something Trump may do over the next few months that would cause them not to support the former president in the 2024 election, while 22 percent can think of something he could do that would make them switch their vote. A slightly larger sum of Biden supporters, 53 percent, said they could not think of something Biden could do to make them switch, and 17 percent said Biden could do something to prompt them to change their minds.

Support for Trump or Biden is also dependent on age groups, the poll found. Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson’s polling, said Biden leads Trump 44 percent to 39 percent among all voters younger than 40, but Trump leads Biden 45 percent to 39 percent among voters younger than 30.

The Pennsylvania voters were also asked about the 2016 and 2020 election results. Sixty-one percent said Trump won fairly in 2016 while 52 percent said Biden won fairly in 2020. 

Biden carried his home state of Pennsylvania in 2020 with 50 percent of the vote while Trump garnered 48.8 percent of the vote. Trump had won the state in 2016 against then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The poll was conducted among 430 Pennsylvania voters between Oct. 1-4 and had a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.