Donald Trump has lost his narrow leads in two key battleground states with less than five months to go until the presidential election.
Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will face off against incumbent President Joe Biden in November, and polls so far have projected the outcome of the 2020 rematch to be close, with most surveys showing the two candidates statistically tied or with a slight lead.
But for the first time this election, Trump is lagging behind Biden in Michigan and Wisconsin, according to the VoteHub tracker, which compiles an average of polls from highly rated polling firms rated “A” or “B” over the past 28 days.
Biden trailed Trump in Michigan by -3.7 percentage points in March, according to the polling tracker. But after narrowing the gap to 0.7 percentage points in April, the current White House occupant took the lead in May with a 1 percentage point lead over his Republican rival. As of June, that lead has narrowed to 0.8 percentage points, but it's still a slim lead over Trump.
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Trump won Michigan in 2016, but Biden gave it back to the Democrats in 2020. Democrats have won the state in seven of the last eight presidential elections.
Trump also appears to have lost support in Wisconsin: A Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll of 4,962 voters in seven battleground states in late May showed Trump leading Wisconsin by a narrow margin, 47% to 46%.
But Biden currently leads Trump in Wisconsin by 0.2 percentage points, according to VoteHub. Trump came under fire last week for reportedly making negative comments about Milwaukee, Wisconsin's most populous city, which experts say could affect the Republican candidate's chances of winning the state.
Trump unexpectedly won Wisconsin by less than 1 percentage point in 2016. In 2020, Biden won Wisconsin with 49.4% of the vote to Trump's 48.8%. Prior to 2016, Wisconsin had been won by Democrats in seven presidential elections.
Newsweek Representatives for Trump and Biden were reached via email seeking comment outside of regular business hours.
Polls in battleground states are important because the Electoral College system gives each state a set number of votes based on population, meaning the election is likely to be decided by a small number of key battleground states.
A presidential candidate must secure 270 electoral votes to win, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success.
However, with less than five months until voting day, it is still too early to judge the election outcome.
Biden and Trump are scheduled to face off in Atlanta on June 27 in the first of two debates scheduled ahead of the November 5 general election.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom, seeking common ground and finding connections.
