It’s difficult to believe, but in one week (June 27) the first presidential debate of the 2024 cycle is just around the corner. As my colleague Bob Hoge wrote on Thursday, both the Biden and Trump campaign teams are preparing their candidates for the massive stage in Atlanta. In recent days, CNN, the host of the debate, published the official rules that both sides have agreed to abide by. Whether President Joe Biden will be able to do this is, of course, still an open question.
Read more:
Preparing for the dueling debate: Biden hides, Trump stays on the field
Let the games begin: The rules for the upcoming Trump-Biden debate on CNN have been set
In a novel snapshot of the state of the race, polls from Emerson College and The hill suggests that former President Donald Trump is maintaining – or increasing – his lead over Biden in six key swing states:
Current polls show that former President Donald Trump is ahead of President Biden in six swing states.
According to polls by Emerson College and The Hill, the 45th president is narrowly ahead of Biden in Arizona (47-43%), Georgia (45-41%), Michigan (46-45%), Nevada (46-43%), Pennsylvania (47-45%) and Wisconsin (47-44%).
The report goes on to say: “In all six states, Trump’s lead has either remained the same or increased since the network’s polls were conducted in May,” before the verdict in the Manhattan business records fraud case.
But that’s not the only bad news for Biden. Support for the presumptive Democratic nominee appears to be showing further cracks in Democratic states like Minnesota if the polling holds up on Election Day:
The poll also found Trump and Biden tied at 45 percent each in Minnesota, which has only supported a Republican president three times since the start of the Great Depression.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said both Biden and Trump have lost support among independent voters since the last poll:
“Independent voters are choosing Trump in all seven states — but there has been some movement among those voters since April,” Kimball said. “In Arizona, Trump’s support among independents fell by five percentage points, from 48% to 43%. In Michigan, Trump’s support fell by three percentage points, from 44% to 41%, and in Pennsylvania, Trump lost eight percentage points, from 49% to 41%. Biden lost support among independents in Georgia by six percentage points, from 42% to 36%, and in Nevada by five percentage points, from 37% to 32%.”
Kimball warns that, like most polls this far in advance for November, the results should be taken with caution, saying: “[n]In particular, the results are within the margin of error of the survey.”
You can read the full report from Emerson College/The hill Survey results Here.
This is a developing story. RedState will provide updates as they become available.
