New poll shows presidential race in Michigan still close

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — About 50 days out from the presidential election, the race for Michigan remains close, a new poll released Thursday morning shows.

The survey conducted by Emerson College Polling, The Hill and WOOD TV8 in swing states found that 49% of Michigan voters polled said they intended to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and 47% said they would vote for former President Donald Trump. With the poll’s margin of error at plus or minus 3.2%, that’s a statistical dead heat. Three percent said they were undecided and about 1% said they would vote for someone else.

Including Thursday’s, the last four polls for News 8 have consistently showed tight races in Michigan. Just after Harris entered the race in July, Emerson had Trump leading Harris in the state by one point. In another poll from Emerson in late August, Harris had a three-point lead over Trump — still a statistical tie. Another from EPIC-MRA around the same time had Trump with one point over Harris .

Emerson College Polling shows tight races in seven swing states, with only a single point separating Harris and Trump in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The two are tied outright in Nevada. Trump has three points over Harris in Georgia.

That being said, poll respondents in all seven swing states said regardless of who they individually intended to vote for, they expected Harris to beat Trump in November.

Both campaigns know how important Michigan is in the Nov. 5 election. That means they’re spending plenty of time here. Republican vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. JD Vance was in West Michigan and Trump was in Flint Tuesday. Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was in West and Mid-Michigan last week and Harris will be in Detroit Thursday.

U.S. SENATE RACE

In Michigan, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican, and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, are vying to take the seat vacated when U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow retires at the end of this term.

The Emerson poll showed Slotkin leading in that race, with 47% of those surveyed saying they would vote for her and 42% saying they would vote for Rogers. That’s a five-point difference, outside the margin of error. Eleven percent said they were undecided.

The last Emerson poll in August showed similar results: It had Slotkin leading Rogers by six points.

The candidates will debate at WOOD TV8 on Oct. 8. You can submit your questions for them on woodtv.com .

Stabenow, a Democrat, has held the seat for 24 years.

Emerson polled 875 people in Michigan starting Sunday evening — the day of what the Secret Service says was a second assassination attempt against Trump — and ending Wednesday.

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