A new Wall Street Journal poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris neck-and-neck with Donald Trump after President Biden gave up the Democratic nomination for the November election.
“In early July, only 37% of Biden supporters were enthusiastic about him; now 81% of Harris supporters are enthusiastic about her,” said Mike Bossian, a Democratic pollster who conducted the survey with Republican pollster David Lee. He told the Journal“This is an incredible change.”
The former president holds a 2 percentage point lead over Harris in the two-candidate race, within the Journal’s 3.1 percentage point margin of error, showing that Harris has narrowed the 6-point lead Trump held over Biden before Biden dropped out of the race last weekend.
When the field is expanded to include Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other independents and third-party candidates, the margin narrows to 45% to 44%, with Trump leading Harris by just 1%. Part of the shift is due to shifts in voter demographics as Harris energizes the Democratic Party and brings high enthusiasm to the party.
The New York Times editorial board urged Kamala Harris to “answer” questions from reporters “better than Biden.”
After announcing she would run in place of Biden, Harris raised $100 million from more than 1.1 million donors between Sunday afternoon and Monday night, in what her campaign claimed was “the largest 24-hour fundraising effort in the history of a presidential election.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump. (Getty Images)
But the Journal poll also contained some good news for Trump: Republican pollster David Lee pointed out that a July 2020 Journal poll had Trump trailing Biden by 9 points.
“Donald Trump is in a much better position this election than he was at this time in the 2020 election,” Lee said. he told the Journal.
Voters tend to support Trump on key issues like the economy, immigration, foreign policy and crime, but support Harris on abortion.
“Instead of the election that was supposed to be won by Trump, we are now in a real, authentic election,” Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and president of the University of New England, told Fox News Digital this week. “The battle is over.”
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According to The Wall Street Journal, a tie in national polls would give Trump the Electoral College advantage “given the nation’s demographics,” but Harris has yet to choose a running mate, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper could all influence the numbers.
Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, on Tuesday afternoon, drawing a large crowd. (Fox News Digital)
A Fox News poll released on Friday showed Harris and Trump remain neck and neck in Michigan, but her approval rating has increased by 3 points from Biden’s 46% in an April poll.
The poll finds men favoring Trump by 13 points and women favoring Harris by 12 points. Trump has a 2-point advantage among voters over 45, while Harris has a 5-point advantage among voters under 35. Whites without college degrees support Trump by 15 points, while Harris has a 39-point advantage among white voters and people of color with degrees.
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The race is tight across battleground states, which will be good news for Democrats who have been pushing for Biden to withdraw after polls showed him losing in those states.
Crowds at a rally for former President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania (Fox News)
Harris has a six-point lead in Minnesota, while Trump has a one-point lead in Wisconsin, and the two remain tied in Pennsylvania.
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A Fox News poll found that Trump and Harris would win the same or higher share of the vote in battleground states as they did in 2020, with growing support from voters who consider the economy and immigration to be top issues. Voters who consider abortion to be a top issue favored Harris.
Harris has higher approval ratings than Trump in every state except Michigan, where the two are tied.
Fox News Digital’s Dana Blanton contributed to this report.
