Former President Donald J. Trump still leads President Biden in the battleground states likeliest to decide the presidency, according to polls from The Wall Street Journal in seven key states.
Mr. Trump held a narrow lead in six of them: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden led in Wisconsin.
The findings echo other recent surveys, including a series of New York Times/Siena College polls in six battleground states last October. Over the last five months, Mr. Trump has led nearly every poll in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — states that would give Mr. Trump more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
But while the findings may not be so different, they nonetheless put a damper on Democratic hopes that Mr. Biden was poised to gain in the polls after his energetic State of the Union address and the effective end of the primary season.
Those hopes weren’t without merit. On paper, many of the conditions for a Biden comeback ought to be in place. Consumer confidence is rising. A Biden-Trump rematch is now an unavoidable reality. The concerns about the president’s age seemed to ebb with the State of the Union and the onset of the general election campaign.
Despite tens of millions of dollars in early advertising from Democrats and a vigorous campaign schedule by Mr. Biden in the key states, the Wall Street Journal polls still found that voters had a deeply negative impression of his job performance, mental and physical stamina, and economic stewardship. Mr. Trump had an advantage over Mr. Biden on almost every issue, and usually a large one.
Abortion and democracy were the only exceptions.