President Barack Obama and likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney are neck and neck in the key battleground states of Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada, a new round of NBC-Marist polls show.
Obama took those states in 2008 and George W. Bush won them in 2004.
The two are tied in Iowa at 44 percent, Obama leads in Colorado 46 percent to 45 percent and also in Nevada 48 percent to 46 percent.
“These are very, very competitive states,” Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, told NBC News. “Everything is close.”
The polls are similar to three released last week that showed Obama holding a narrow lead in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia.
Obama is helped in the latest round of polling by improved feelings about the economy. According to NBC, majorities in all three states believe the worst is now behind them.
Majorities also say the president mostly inherited the current economic conditions. However, Romney is helped by a feeling in all three states that the country is on the wrong track, with 54 percent in Iowa, 55 percent in Nevada, and 56 percent in Colorado holding that belief.
When asked which candidate would do a better job on the economy, those surveyed in Colorado and Iowa chose Romney 45 percent to 42 percent and 46 percent to 41 percent respectively. The two were tied in Nevada at 44 percent.
The NBC-Marist polls surveyed over 1,000 registered voters in all three states May 22-24.
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