(The Center Square) – With six weeks to go, election battleground North Carolina remains all squared up with a fraction of a percentage point separating presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
The latest poll of the state’s residents Thursday, from Emerson College and sponsored by The Hill, is the first of the handful to lean the way of the vice president. Harris led 49%-48% – a tie factoring in the 3% margin of error among the 1,000 likely voters – against the former Republican president.
The Emerson poll checked the seven consensus battlegrounds and all are statistically even, meaning within the margin of error. Nevada was a tie at 48% each; Trump slightly led in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Wisconsin; and Harris was just in front in Michigan.
The Emerson sampling was conducted Sunday through Wednesday.
RealClear Polling, without margin of error factored in, gives Trump a lead overall in North Carolina. At 47.6%-47.5%, both candidates are essentially more than 3% – the usual minimum for error margin – away from claiming a definitive lead.
Trump earlier had modest leads, none larger than 3%, in respective post-debate polls by the Carolina Journal, American Greatness, Trafalgar Group, and Quantus Insights. The latter is not included in the RCP analysis.