A new poll shows Donald Trump leading President Biden in Georgia, a key battleground state that will host the first presidential debate on Thursday.
According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, Trump holds a five-point lead over the president with 43% of likely voters' approval rating compared to Biden's 38%, continuing trends favorable for the former president in the Peach State.
The poll released Tuesday also showed independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. receiving 9 percent support, but 8 percent of likely voters were undecided. One percent supported Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, one percent said they would not vote, and the same percentage said “some other candidate.”
Kennedy is not yet on the state's electoral rolls, but his campaign says he remains active.
Biden and Trump are set to go head-to-head for the first time in the 2024 election cycle in a CNN-hosted debate in Atlanta at 9 p.m. on Thursday.
The AJC poll is in line with other recent polls showing Trump consistently leading Biden in Georgia. RealClearPolitics projects Trump leading Biden by an average of 5.6 percentage points in the state, which he narrowly lost by 0.23 percentage points in 2020.
Despite Trump's lead, the poll suggests that his conviction in the Manhattan “hush money” case is affecting voter opinions, at least among independents: About a third of independents surveyed said the fact that Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges he was indicted on made them less likely to vote for him.
But the AJC poll also shows Biden losing support among black voters in Georgia, the demographic that helped him win the Peach State with 88% support in 2020. Now, with just a few months left in the race, Biden has the support of 70% of black voters in Georgia.
The incumbent president is also unpopular with younger voters: Only 12% of those ages 19 to 29 said they would vote for Biden.
The poll was conducted by the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs from June 11-22, with a sample size of 1,000 people and a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
