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Mitt Romney leads President Obama in head-to-head matchups in the key battlegrounds of Florida and Michigan, according to a pair of new state polls.

The former Massachusetts governor leads Obama among likely voters in the Sunshine State, 46 percent to 42 percent, according to a Rasmussen Reports poll. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich comes within striking distance of the president, attracting 43 percent to Obama's 45 percent. Herman Cain trails Obama by nine points.

Obama won Florida by two points in 2008, but the poll forecasts an uphill battle for him there in 2012. With 42 percent support, he trails the generic Republican candidate by six points. And a majority of voters -- 52 percent -- disapprove of the job he is doing as president, while 47 percent approve.

Meanwhile, Romney appears to present another challenge for the president in Michigan, a state Obama won by an overwhelming 16-point margin in 2008. Romney, whose father governed the state for three terms, tops the president there by five points among likely voters, 46 percent to 41 percent, according to an EPIC-MRA statewide poll for the Detroit Free Press. Notably, the president trails in two key suburban Detroit counties -- Macomb and Oakland. And Romney has a substantial lead among independent voters, 41 percent to 34 percent. The two are tied among independent women, but Romney leads among independent men, 45 percent to 32 percent.

Romney is the front-runner to win the GOP presidential nod in Michigan, attracting 34 percent support from likely GOP primary voters. Gingrich takes 20 percent, and Cain garners 13 percent. In head-to-head matchups, Obama tops Gingrich by five points and Cain by 14 points and leads both by double digits among independents.

In Florida, Rasmussen surveyed 500 likely voters on Nov. 17. The sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points. In Michigan, EPIC-MRA polled 600 likely voters from Nov. 13-16. The margin of error for that survey is plus or minus four percentage points.