Harris polling ahead of Trump in three battleground states

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in three crucial battleground states, according to new polls published Saturday, apparently eroding the advantage the former president has enjoyed there over the past year.

The polls of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College showed Harris leading Trump by an identical 50 percent to 46 percent margin in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Under the US electoral college voting system, those three populous Midwestern states are considered key to victory for either party.

The polls are a reversal of surveys in those states which for nearly a year had shown Trump either tied with or slightly leading Democratic President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the race last month and endorsed Harris instead.

Much can change in the nearly three months before the November 5 election. The polling showed voters still prefer Trump on the key issues of the economy and immigration, though Harris had a 24-point advantage when voters were asked whom they trust on the issue of abortion.

Democrats, in any case, have taken heart in the surge of enthusiasm that has greeted Harris’s candidacy, with many expressing relief after 81-year-old Biden stepped aside.

Her announcement Tuesday of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate also appears to have energized Democrats.