Donald Trump and Joe Biden remain locked in a close race for the presidency, according to a new poll from the New York Times and Siena College, which finds registered voters nationwide splitting 46% for Trump to 45% for Biden with no clear leader in the contest.
That’s a tighter race compared with the last Times/Siena survey in late-February, when Trump led by 5 points, but is in line with the current CNN Poll of Polls average, which shows 48% supporting each candidate with the new poll incorporated. At the time of the last Times/Siena poll, the Poll of Polls averaged 48% Trump to 46% Biden, suggesting a narrower shift in overall views of the race since early March compared with the change in this specific poll.
The survey finds that how the public views the state of the country remain largely unchanged: Most voters still say the US is heading in the wrong direction (64%), Biden’s approval rating remains deeply negative (38% approve and 59% disapprove), and ratings of the economy are far more bad than good (79% rate economic conditions as only fair or poor).
The polling comes as Biden prepares a campaign swing through battleground Pennsylvania while he looks to draw an economic contrast with Trump, zeroing in on his plans to raise taxes for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. His team has emphasized what they see as bright spots in the economy, including low unemployment, wage gains and an overall downward trend in inflation from its highest point earlier in the administration.
The former president, meanwhile, has also leaned into his economic plans on the campaign trail. Trump told a crowd at a recent fundraiser in Florida – at which he raised $50.5 million – that one of his core issues for a second term would be extending the sweeping tax cuts that congressional Republicans approved in 2017.
Trump, who is also expected to participate in a campaign rally and donor event in Pennsylvania on Saturday, will begin a juggling act between the courtroom and the campaign trial as his criminal hush money trial kicks off on Monday.
More broadly, 54% say they feel that Trump has committed serious federal crimes, 37% that he has not, about the same as in the February Times/Siena poll.