Biden inches slightly ahead of Trump in Pennsylvania, poll says

The race between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump remains tight in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, a new poll shows.

A Quinnipiac University survey of registered voters showed 49 percent supporting Biden and 46 percent supporting Trump, who has been leading his GOP rivals for the Republican nomination in most polls.

The poll, conducted Jan. 4-8, is the first in Pennsylvania that shows Biden with a slight lead over Trump. Recent polls in other swing states have also suggested a close race, though Trump more frequently leads Biden in these and some national polls.

Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral college votes, was a key state in the 2020 election, when Biden edged out Trump by just over 1 percentage point. Trump won the state by a narrow margin in the 2016 general election against Hillary Clinton, beating her by just three-quarters of a percentage point.

In a hypothetical matchup including third-party candidates, Biden earned 41 percent support; Trump received 39 percent; independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 11 percent; Green Party candidate Jill Stein 4 percent; and independent candidate Cornel West 2 percent.

Only 40 percent of Pennsylvania voters approved of Biden's job performance, the poll showed, with 58 percent expressing disapproval. Democratic Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro significantly outperformed the president, earning a job approval rating of 59 percent.

Democrat Sen. Bob Casey, who is up for reelection, earned a 51 percent approval rating. The state's Democratic junior senator, John Fetterman, trailed him with 45 percent approval rating.

In the race for Senate, Casey currently leads Republican challenger David McCormick by 10 percentage points, 53-43 percent, the poll showed.

The poll had a sample of 1,680 registered voters surveyed via random-digit dialing over the telephone. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.