Former President Donald Trump has a 3-point advantage over President Joe Biden in Nevada, a new AARP poll found.
According to the survey, which was published Tuesday, 48% of Silver State voters say they support Trump, compared to 45% who say they back Biden.
When independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is included, Trump's lead widens to 7 points. Though he has pledged to appear on the ballot in all 50 states, Kennedy has not yet qualified for the Nevada ballot.
"If he is on the ballot, it makes Biden's chances of winning Nevada a lot harder," Bob Ward, a partner at polling firm Fabrizio Ward, said of Kennedy.
Among voters age 50 and older, Biden trails Trump by 12 points, according to the poll. However, the AARP poll is a slight improvement for Biden from a New York Times/Siena poll from earlier this year, which found the president trailing Trump by 13 points.
With its six electoral votes up for grabs, Nevada is one of the most important battlegrounds in what's expected to be a close presidential election. Biden won the state by a margin of just 2.7 percentage points in 2020.
"Any one of the states that we're calling battlegrounds could make the difference," Ward said.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is also vying for another term and is locked in a tight Senate race this year with Republican candidate Sam Brown. The survey found Brown trailing Rosen by 5 points among all voters, though Brown had a 5-point advantage over Rosen among older voters.
Impact Research pollster Jeff Liszt predicted that split-ticket voters – those voting for both Trump and Rosen, or Biden and Brown – could play a major role in the state's presidential race.
"When you look at the older voters, 43% are straight-ticket Republican and 35 percent are straight-ticket Democrat, but 23% are splitting their tickets," Liszt told AARP. "[That's] an indicator that there are more voters up for grabs right now than there may have been in recent elections."
The poll was conducted June 12-18 and surveyed 1,400 likely Nevada voters. No margin of error was given.