Poll: Trump Gaining on Clinton in Pa. Ahead of First Presidential Debate

Donald Trump (Photo by Michael Conroy/AP); Hillary Clinton (Photo by Andrew Harnik/AP).

A poll released just before the first presidential debate gives Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton a mere three-point lead over Republican Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

The Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll is the second released this month, and it reflects a pretty big switch-up in a short amount of time. The first poll, published on September 17th, gave Clinton a nine-point lead over Trump in Pennsylvania, at 47 percent to 38 percent in a head-to-head matchup. In the poll released this past weekend, Clinton secured just 44 percent of state participants, while Trump got 41 percent.

Republican Pat Toomey is also closing in on Democratic candidate Katie McGinty in the race for U.S. Senate, according to the poll. The more recent survey gives Toomey a one-point lead over McGinty, while the poll released just a week ago gave McGinty a five-point lead over Toomey.

Clinton and Trump will face off for their first presidential debate at 9 p.m. tonight. It’s among the most highly anticipated presidential debates in American history, according to the New York Times. It’ll take place at Hofstra University in New York.

The Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll’s findings for both the presidential and the U.S. Senate races are within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points. The poll was conducted between September 19th and September 23rd, and surveyed 486 likely general election voters. According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, Muhlenberg College receives an A polling grade and has a slight Republican bias.

Pennsylvania remains a battleground state, with Trump speaking in Delaware County last week and both First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden making campaign appearances for Clinton in Philadelphia sometime this week.

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