Donald Trump held an eight-percentage-point lead over Joe Biden in Michigan while tying with his Democratic rival in Pennsylvania, according to a pair of new polls released Friday.
The former president garnered 50 percent support from surveyed Michigan voters compared to Biden’s 42 percent in a hypothetical matchup, according to the CNN poll. In Pennsylvania, Trump and Biden both earned 46 percent of the vote.
Biden beat out his Republican rival in both states in the 2020 presidential election, winning Michigan by nearly three percentage points and Pennsylvania by slightly more than one percentage point.
But voters in both swing states are dissatisfied with their options in the 2024 presidential election, the polls showed. Fifty-three percent of Michigan voters and 52 percent of Pennsylvania voters said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the candidates.
Trump has faced backlash over his mounting legal troubles and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, while Biden has been saddled with questions about his age and mental acuity.
In both states, about one third of Trump voters and almost two-thirds of Biden voters said their pledged support was more of a vote against their opponent than for that candidate.
In Michigan, 63 percent of Biden voters and 38 percent of Trump voters characterized their support as such. In Pennsylvania, it was true for 61 percent of Biden voters and 34 percent of Trump voters.
The CNN polls surveyed 1,132 registered voters in Pennsylvania and 1,097 in Michigan online and by phone from March 13 to March 18. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 3.8 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 3.6 percentage points in Michigan.