A new poll in Michigan shows Kamala Harris and Donald Trump tied in the crucial state, with just over 100 days to go until Election Day.
According to the Detroit News-WDIV-TV poll, which was conducted after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and Harris entered, Harris and Trump are tied at 41 percent among likely voters in the general election.
The poll also found that third-party candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., who is running in the state as the Natural Law Party nominee, has the support of 10 percent of likely voters. Another 6 percent of voters are undecided.
Zooming in a little further, we see that Harris has a small lead of one-third of a percentage point over Trump, but that is well within the margin of error.
The new poll shows that the state of play in the Michigan race, seen as critical for Democrats to win in November, has changed dramatically from when Biden was in the race.
New Michigan poll shows Harris and Trump tied at 41 percent in swing state
A similar survey conducted by the group in Michigan six months ago found Biden trailing Trump by eight points in a head-to-head contest in the state, 47 percent to 39 percent, with three percent of likely voters still undecided.
According to the poll released Thursday, Kennedy leads among independent voters, but is narrowly divided between those who “lean Republican” and those who “lean Democratic.”
He polls at 27 percent, Harris at 26 percent and Trump at 25 percent among independents, but nearly 18 percent of independents are still undecided.
Independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. is polling at 10 percent in Michigan and has an even split among independent voters who lean Democratic and Republican.
Trump won the state in 2016, but Biden flipped it blue again in 2020, winning by just over 150,000 votes over the former president. Democrats and Republicans have both campaigned hard in the swing state in the run-up to November.
The poll was conducted just days after Donald Trump held his first rally in Michigan after officially accepting the Republican presidential nomination at the convention in Milwaukee.
His meeting in Grand Rapids was also his first with his running mate JD Vance, whom he announced at the very last minute during the convention.
The Ohio senator’s pick was seen as a move that could help the former president appeal to voters in the Rust Belt. But the conservative leanings and anti-abortion stance of the Republican vice presidential candidates could pose a problem, especially among women in Michigan, where abortion rights were the top issue in the 2022 midterm elections.
Trump with running mate Senator JD Vance during their rally in Grand Rapids, MI on July 20
Meanwhile, Harris still has to decide who will be her running mate, as the deadline for Democratic delegates is August 7, when they must officially nominate candidates for the top position.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s name has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate.
While the governor is backing Harris for president and has pledged to help her get elected, Whitmer said in an interview this week that she is committed to finishing her second term in the state after being re-elected in the 2022 midterm elections.
Vice President Harris arrives at a campaign rally in Kalamazoo, MI on July 17
President Biden held a rally in Detroit a little over a week before dropping out of the presidential race. Harris made a campaign stop in Kalamazoo a little over a week ago when she was the presumptive vice presidential nominee.
Whitmer has already promoted Harris in the state, but the vice president has not yet set a date for when he will return to Michigan as a presumptive presidential candidate.
