A new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris within striking distance of former President Donald Trump in Alaska – a state Democrats have not won in a presidential election in sixty years. The new poll was conducted by Alaska Survey Research on September 11 and 12 after the ABC News presidential debate.
It found Kamala Harris down by just five points among likely voters in the northwestern state. Trump had 47 percent support while Harris had 42 percent, according to the poll.
The last Democrat to win the so-called Last Frontier state was President Lyndon B Johnson back in 1964. It was the only time a Democratic presidential candidate won Alaska in the state’s history. Trump carried Alaska by more than 52 percent of the vote in 2020. He won it by 10 points over President Biden or just over 36,000 votes.
The 2020 results were the smallest Republican margin in a presidential race in Alaska since 1992. In 2016, Trump won the state by more than 15 points over Hillary Clinton.
The latest polling shows him still with a lead but the gap has closed dramatically in the state since his first bid for the White House. While Harris’ chances of winning Alaska are low, polling analyst Nate Silver wrote over the weekend that the vice president has a better chance of taking that state than Florida or Texas.
Poll: Harris closing in on Trump in state where Dems lost for 60 years (msn.com)