A new public opinion poll shows U.S. President Barack Obama has taken the lead over his election rival, Republican Mitt Romney, in the three key battleground states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Quinnipiac University survey, released Wednesday, finds President Obama ahead of Romney by nine percentage points in Ohio, six in Pennsylvania and four in Florida. That is a significant jump from a Quinnipiac poll last month that showed Mr. Obama leading in Pennsylvania, with Florida and Ohio too close to call.
The assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said Mr. Obama would be “virtually assured of re-election” if he can keep those leads in the three critical swing states. The election is in November.
The president's improved poll numbers come after he announced a new immigration policy protecting some illegal immigrants from deportation who were brought to the U.S. as children. Quinnipiac says voters in all three states voice strong support for the president's immigration order and say he would be better than Romney at handling immigration.
In other U.S. election news, two veteran congressional lawmakers, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Democratic Representative Charles Rangel of New York, have survived strong challengers in their respective primary elections.
Hatch defeated former state senator Dan Liljenquist in Tuesday's primary vote. Liljenquist, who was backed by the conservative Tea Party movement, won enough votes at the state Republican nomination convention to face Hatch in the primary. But he was outspent by Hatch, a 78-year-old incumbent who was first elected to the Senate in 1976.
In New York City, 82-year-old Democratic Representative Charles Rangel beat back four challengers Tuesday in his bid for a 22nd term in the House of Representatives. Rangel was forced to step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee in 2010 after he was found guilty of ethics violations, including failure to pay taxes.
''This is not the first time my community has rallied behind me … when some of the most severe charges have been made against me in the past…was my community. There's so much that has to be done in this country in my community, and I'm just glad my community has great confidence in me doing it.''
Rangel has represented New York's African-American Harlem neighborhood since 1971, but his district now has a majority Hispanic population after it was redrawn by state lawmakers.
Both Hatch and Rangel are expected to easily win their respective campaigns in the November general election.
