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F&M Poll: Harris Leads Trump Among Independent, Moderate PA Voters

While Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris maintains her three-point lead in Pennsylvania over Republican Donald Trump, and in a race that includes third-party candidates, she also has the advantage among registered independent (48% to 35%) and moderate voters (58% to 33%).

“You want to have an advantage with those two groups,” Berwood Yost, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll, said. “They’re going to decide the race, ultimately, but again, there’s still room to grow.” 

According to the latest F&M poll, Harris is favored among registered voters, 49% to 46%, which is within the poll’s margin of error, plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

The top reasons that Harris voters give for supporting her candidacy include character (17%), women’s rights (15%), anti-Trumpism (12%), partisanship (10%), and democracy (8%). Voters supporting Trump cite economic policy (34%), immigration (15%) and partisanship (14%). 

The survey also recorded some notable findings. Here are some highlights:

  • Concern about the economy (34%), including unemployment and higher gas and utility prices, continues as the most important and often mentioned problem facing the state.
  • Concerns about government and politicians (9%), taxes (7%), education (6%) and crime (6%) are the other frequently expressed problems confronting the state.
  • More registered Pennsylvania voters believe the U.S. should have a less active role in world affairs (37%) than more active (16%), but a plurality (41%) believes it should maintain its current level of activity.
  • More than three in five (61%) voters believe the U.S. should provide more or the same amount of military support for Ukraine. Nearly one in five believes the United States should provide less military support (19%) to Ukraine and over one in seven (15%) wants all military aid withdrawn.
  • A plurality (48%) of registered voters think the U.S. should devote more resources to controlling immigration at the border, but more than one in four (26%) believe the U.S. should devote more to address issues that cause migration and over one in five (21%) believe it should do both.

F&M’s Center for Opinion Research conducted the poll between Sept. 4 and 15, recording the views of 890 registered voters—399 Democrats, 366 Republicans and 125 independents.

Visit F&M Poll’s Key Findings for the complete poll results and analysis of voters’ sentiments on the latest issues and job approval ratings of elected officials. 

Election Day is Nov. 5.

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