Biden ahead of Trump by 7 points in Pa.

President won state by less than 1 point in 2016

WASHINGTON – Less than two weeks before the election Nov. 3, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads President Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a USA TODAY/ Suffolk University poll.

Nearly half ( 49%) of likely voters say they support Biden, and 42% support Trump, according to the poll released Wednesday.

“I feel safe with Joe Biden, it’s like having your dad watching over,” says Lisa Laws, 61, who answered the poll and lives in Strafford. “I think he can get this country back on track because we’ve got to change.”

Laws says she has seen divisiveness grow under the Trump administration and feels like the country has gone backward. Laws says she was the first Black person at her elementary school and went on to be the first Black person and first woman paralegal at her law firm.

“It’s things like that that I see going backwards, not forward,” she says. “This president is turning it on.”

Trump won the Keystone State against Democrat Hillary Clinton by less than 1 percentage point in 2016. Pennsylvania has long been a swing state in presidential elections, choosing 20 of the past 25 presidents.

David Black, 61, of Chalfont, says he supports the president because “he has done everything he says, whether you like it or you don’t like it.”

“He’s for America first, and I like that,” says Black, who responded to the poll and voted for Trump in 2016.

Though the majority of likely voters ( 57%) say the country is on the wrong track, 51% say they are better off than they were four years ago. About onethird ( 32%) say the country is on the right track. Thirty percent say they are worse off than they were four years ago.

Forty- nine percent have a favorable view of Biden, and 44% have an unfavorable view. More likely voters ( 52%) have an unfavorable view of Trump than those who have a favorable view ( 42%).

Autumn Sonnet, 35, of Pittsburgh, says that although Biden was not her first choice, “now it seems like it’s imperative that he is elected.”

“I think Donald Trump is a dangerous man,” Sonnet says, citing COVID- 19, systemic racism and the economy as some of her top concerns.

The poll surveyed 500 likely voters via cellphone and landlines from Oct. 15 to 19. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

Asked what their top issue in the election is, 26% of likely voters say bringing the country together, which leads all other issues. It’s followed by jobs and the economy at 23% and COVID- 19 at 22%.

The Supreme Court has also been a topic after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Trump’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Confirmation hearings were held for Barrett last week, and a vote is likely in the coming days.

A majority of likely Pennsylvania voters ( 58%) say Trump’s nomination of Barrett makes no difference in whether they support the president. Twenty- three percent say it made them less likely to support Trump for reelection, and 18% say it made them more likely.

Barrett’s confirmation could mean conservative dominance for decades in the Supreme Court, where Republican appointees would hold a 6- 3 advantage. Since her nomination, some Democrats have called for expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court. According to the poll, 58% say they do not support adding justices; 27% say they do.

For weeks, Biden has not made his position clear on so- called court packing, though he said he is “not a fan” of it. Nearly half of voters ( 47%) say they view Biden’s court comments favorably, and 36% view them unfavorably.

Black says he does not support adding justices to the Supreme Court.

“You start creating more justices to get the opinions you want,” he says, “it’s almost like ‘ Well, I gotta win, and I’m just gonna create new facts.’”

Laws supports adding justices, though she says it shouldn’t be called court packing. “I believe it should be called court evening,” Laws says. The “minority shouldn’t be ruling the majority,” she says, and “the majority of the country is pro- choice.”

Asked what their top issue in the election is, 26% of likely voters say bringing the country together, which leads all other issues.