Kamala Harris catches up with Trump in key battleground states, shows poll

Vice President Kamala Harris and US President Donald Trump are locked in a neck-to-neck contest in ‘battleground states’, according to a new poll.

The exit of President Joe Biden from the presidential race and Kamala becoming the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party has enthused fresh energy in the campaign against Trump , the nominee of the Republican Party.

As per a poll conducted by Fox News in four most important battleground states, Harris is leading over Trump in one and is tied in two. The poll showed Trump as leading in only one of the states.

Harris and Trump locked in fierce contest

The Fox News conducted the poll in the four battleground states of Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The poll shows Harris ahead in Minnesota, Trump just narrowly ahead in Wisconsin, and the two tied in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

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Here are the exact findings of the poll:

• Michigan        : Harris 49, Trump 49

• Minnesota      : Harris 52, Trump 46

• Pennsylvania : Harris 49, Trump 49

• Wisonsin        : Harris 49, Trump 50

The poll was conducted during July 22-24 after Biden dropped out and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

This is a stark reversal of the situation in May where another poll conducted in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin showed Trump in overall lead.

In May, Trump was leading in Michigan and Pennsylvania and Biden was leading in Wisconsin, according to a poll by The New York Times, Siena College, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The poll also counted three other states as battleground states and showed that Trump was leading in Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada as well.

These seven states —Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada— are widely considered to be very critical to the US election result. For context, Biden won all seven in 2020.

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What are battleground states?

The battleground states are the key states that really decide the US presidential election. These states have a history of swinging between the Democrat and Republican nominees and that’s why the result here is what makes or breaks a nominee’s fortunes.

In the US electoral system, the nominee with the most votes does not win. Each state has a number of electors. The nominee who wins the state gets all electors in their favour. These electors form the ’electoral college’. There are a total of 538 electors and a nominee needs to win 270 of them to win a majority.

Therefore, presidential campaigns are tailored such that nominees win states in order to reach the 270-mark and not necessarily the popular vote. In 2016, Trump lost the popular vote but won the election as he won the states such that he crossed the 270-mark.

Most states in the United States are well-known to be Democrat or Republican in nature. It means that they are almost always won by one party. But some states keep swinging between the two parties and have no certainty of result. These swing states are called ‘battleground states’ and it is in these states that fiercest campaigns are conducted. The result in these states decides the presidential election.