GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has a 7-point lead over President Biden in Michigan — more than double last month, a new poll shows.
Trump leads 49%-42% against Biden in both races, and in a five-way battle, leads at 43%, followed by Biden at 36%, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 8%, Green. The party expects Jill Stein at 2% and Cornel West at 2%, according to the Free Press / EPIC-MRA poll
In both cases, about 9% of voters were undecided.
Perhaps most surprising for Biden, the polls show Trump leading his 2020 nemesis in every major region of the country.
The poll – taken after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump – also saw the former president more than double Biden’s lead in Michigan since another Free Press/EPIC-MRA survey in June, when Trump had a 3-point lead, 49% to Biden’s 45 %.
Michigan, which has 15 Electoral College votes, is considered one of the seven battleground states needed to win the presidency.
Biden and Trump have fought back and forth over the state’s primary election since 2016, when Trump won. Biden then took it again in 2020.
On average, Trump now has a 2.1-point advantage over Biden in the Wolverine State, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of the two-way race. In a five-way race, that’s 1.5 points.
Trump is ahead of Biden in most key battleground states and even national matchups, according to RCP.
The 78-year-old former president passed through Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday for his first public rally since being officially sworn in as the Republican presidential nominee during Thursday’s Republican National Convention.
Vice presidential candidate JD Vance (R-Ohio) joined him on the campaign stump.
The incumbent president is facing calls from nearly three dozen congressional Democrats to shrug off concerns about his age and ability to deliver on Trump.
When asked if he should step aside, 46% of Democratic voters in the Free Press/EPIC-MRA poll said he should, while 43% said no, and 11% were undecided.
Among Republicans and Independents, 55% want him, 32% think not, and the rest are undecided.
The main issues among voters are inflation (31%), immigration (17%) and abortion (12%), according to the poll.
The survey showed that many voters were unfamiliar with the Legacy Foundation Project 2025, the transition plan put forward by the ultra-conservative group if Trump wins the presidency.
The Biden campaign and the Democrats have harassed Trump and the GOP over Project 2025, framing the proposal as extreme and not focused on a plan to dismantle government cuts.
Trump has publicly distanced himself from the project.
Only 27% of those polled said they were somewhat familiar with it, compared to 15% who were very familiar with it and 57% who were not familiar with it.
“Some on the right, the far right, created this Project ’25,” Trump said during a rally in Michigan. “I don’t even know, I mean, some people, I know who they are, but they’re very conservative. They’re sort of the opposite of the radical left. You have the radical left, and you have the radical right.
Another key finding in the poll was Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) running ahead of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) 43% to 40% in the battle for the open state Senate seat, while 17% were undecided.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points and was conducted from July 13-17. In other words, pollsters started surveying about 600 people the same day Trump was shot.
“It will only increase the pressure on Biden to step down and have someone replace him,” EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn told the Free Press. “Democrats are in a difficult position.”
