President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are running roughly even in Georgia ahead of two weeks of political conventions that aim to reframe the public’s attention on the race for the White House.
The poll, conducted for Channel 2 Action News by Landmark Communications, pegs Trump at 47% and Biden at 44% — within the margin of error. About 4% back Libertarian Jo Jorgensen, and another 4% are undecided.
It echoes other polls that show a tight race in Georgia, a state that Republican presidential hopefuls have carried in every vote since 1996. A string of recent Georgia polls from Monmouth University, YouGov and SurveyUSA each show a close contest.
The Landmark poll was released Monday at the start of the Democratic National Convention, a four-day virtual party meeting that culminates with Biden’s formal nomination. Next week, Republicans will get their chance to tout Trump and his re-election agenda.
Georgia Democrats hope to persuade Biden’s campaign to devote more resources to the state, and they were encouraged Monday by Erin Wilson, the candidate’s political director, who promised “we are coming for Georgia” in a Zoom call to kick off the convention.
But the poll points to strengths for Republicans, who have won every statewide race in Georgia for more than a decade, including Trump’s 5-point win in 2016. The president has a 15-point lead over Biden among men, and Trump has the edge among white voters (68%) and those 65 and over (55%).
“Georgia politics for Democrats is an awful lot like climbing Stone Mountain. For 45 minutes you can make a lot of progress, but the last stretch is vertical,” said Mark Rountree, the president of Landmark. “They’ve gotten close to Republicans, but it’s hard to get that final step. They still haven’t gotten over the edge.”
Biden holds a slight advantage among younger voters and leads Trump 51% to 44% with women and 42% to 31% with independents. Both candidates have solid support within their own parties: About 85% of Republicans back Trump, while roughly the same proportion of Democrats support Biden.
The poll of 500 likely voters was conducted Friday and Saturday and has a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points. See the crosstabs here.
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