Former President Trump has widened his lead over Vice President Harris in Georgia, according to a new poll, as the rivals fight for inches in key states in the Southeast.
A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Trump up 6 points over Harris in the Peach State, with 50 percent to her 44 percent. Another 3 percent backed other candidates.
That’s a slightly bigger lead than Trump enjoyed last month, when the pollster found Trump up 4 points among likely Georgia voters.
Meanwhile, Trump has a 2-point lead in the critical swing state of North Carolina, which Quinnipiac notes as too close to call.
“All eyes are on the South as Georgia and North Carolina, turbocharged by 32 electoral votes between them, can make or break the two candidates in a race that looks to be leaning Trump’s way in Georgia at the moment and churning toward a tight finish in North Carolina,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
The new poll, taken in late September, comes as Hurricane Helene has ravaged the southeastern United States, devastating parts of both key battlegrounds. Georgia and North Carolina have both been showing signs of a tightening presidential race, but it’s unclear how the storms will impact or influence voters, with Election Day a little over a month away.
Trump won both states in 2016. He won North Carolina in 2020, while Biden eked out a win in Georgia. The latest polling averages from The Hill/Decision Desk HQ show a tie in Georgia and give Trump a 0.8-point lead in North Carolina.
Trump visited Georgia on Monday in the aftermath of the hurricane, while Harris cut a West Coast campaign swing short to head back to Washington for FEMA briefings. The White House has said Harris will visit affected areas “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.”
Conducted Sept. 25-29, the Quinnipiac University Poll surveyed 942 likely voters in Georgia and 953 likely voters in North Carolina. There was a 3.2-percentage point margin of error for both samples.
