Harris, Trump virtually tied in Michigan according to Suffolk/USA Today poll
A new poll of likely Michigan voters by Suffolk University/USA Today showed a tie race going into next Tuesday’s presidential election between Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Michigan is one of a handful of swing states expected to decide the outcome of the election, along with Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democratic President Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020 over Trump, who eked out a win in the state in 2016.
Most recent polls have shown the race in Michigan a virtual tossup between the two major party nominees.
The new poll showed Trump ahead of Harris 47.4% to 47%, well within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. In this poll of 500 Michiganders, the difference represents just two voters.
Green Party candidate Jill Stein and former Natural Law Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has dropped out of the race but remains on the ballot, each received 1.4%, independent Cornel West received 1% and Libertarian Chase Oliver received 0.2%. Independent Joseph Kishore also got 0.2%.
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Just 1.4% of those surveyed said they were undecided or refused to answer. Suffolk University polled people between last Thursday and Sunday.
In the race for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, the poll also indicated Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Holly led Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake, 47.2% to 45.5%, also within the margin of error. Nearly 5% of those surveyed in that race were still undecided.
The poll results in the presidential race found a wide and nearly equal gap between voters of different genders, with women favoring Harris 57%-38% and men favoring Trump 57%-37%. White voters split 53%-43% for the Republican former president and Black voters split 82%-15% for the Democratic vice president, who, if elected, would become the first woman, first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent to become president.
While both Democrats and Republicans gave widespread support – in each case topping 92% – to their party’s candidate, self-described independent voters broke much more evenly, with Harris leading slightly 46%-42%.
For the poll, Suffolk University also oversampled in Kent County, a key swing county in west Michigan which Biden won by 6 percentage points in 2020. The results showed Harris leading there by 1 percentage point, 47.3%-46.3%. For those results, 300 likely Kent County voters were surveyed and the margin of error was plus or minus 5.65 percentage points.
Contact Todd Spangler: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: New poll: Harris, Trump virtually tied in Michigan