2016 Battle Rages Across Non-Traditional Map

With nine weeks left until the presidential election, a new 50-state poll from The Washington Post finds the contest deadlocked across a sprawling and completely non-traditional campaign map.

The survey of a four-way contest, including the Libertarian and Green Party nominees, found Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton within five points of each other in a whopping 14 states, including several not usually considered in the swing-state category.

[lz_table title=”2016 States Within 5 Points” source=” Washington Post 50-State Poll”]State,Clinton,Trump
Arizona,37%,39%
Colorado,37%,37%
Florida,42%,40%
Georgia,39%,30%
Iowa,36%,40%
Maine,37%,34%
Michigan,39%,38%
Mississippi,43%,46%
Nevada,40%,37%
North Carolina,40%,41%
Ohio,37%,40%
Pennsylvania,41%,38%
Texas,40%,40%
Wisconsin,39%,37%
[/lz_table]

Trump is within three points of Clinton in Maine — a state that has not voted Republican in a presidential contest since 1988.

In the Rust Belt, Trump is closing on Clinton in Wisconsin and Michigan. Clinton carries only a two-point edge over Trump in Wisconsin. The Badger State has been reliably Democratic since Reagan swept the state in back-to-back elections in 1980 and 1984. The Washington Post found Trump just one point shy of Clinton in electoral vote-rich Michigan.

The tight numbers continue in many of the country’s more conventional swing states.

The poll found Trump ahead 40 to 37 in Ohio, 41 to 40 in North Carolina, and 40 to 36 in Iowa. Trump and Clinton came out exactly tied in Colorado and Clinton clung to slim leads in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Florida.

[lz_related_box id=”200956″]

Of course the findings were not without areas of concern for the Republican nominee. The traditionally red states of Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas all found their way onto the list of states with less than a five-point margin.

But overall, the rising Trump tide in key states is supported by building momentum for the GOP nominee in a number of national polls.

A CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday found Trump with a two-point national lead in the four-way matchup.

Professional political diviner Nate Silver has been steadily upping the projected chances of a Trump victory in November. Silver gave Trump a 32.5 percent chance of victory on his “poll-plus” predictor Tuesday, up from the 21.4 percent chance Silver’s FiveThirtyEight gave Trump Aug. 17.