The Biden-Harris campaign has reportedly commissioned an internal poll to gauge how Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris would perform if she faced off against former President Donald Trump.
of The New York Times report The Democratic Party reported the development on Thursday, citing three anonymous sources “familiar with the situation.” The report comes amid ongoing speculation among the left about replacing Biden at the top of the candidate list in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance that sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party.
“They did not say why they conducted the survey or what the campaign plans to do with its results,” the outlet’s Maggie Haberman, Shane Goldmacher, Reed Epstein, and Lisa Lehrer wrote, noting that this appears to be the first Trump-Harris poll commissioned by the campaign since the debate.
It is unclear which organization is conducting research into the campaign.
of Times He also noted that campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon had sought to reassure staff in internal memos that Biden remained the most likely candidate and had a path to victory.
In addition to our clear belief in the path forward, we have no indication that any candidate would perform better than President Trump. Hypothetical polls of alternative candidates are always unreliable, and the surveys do not take into account the negative media environment a Democratic candidate would face. The only Democratic candidate for whom this is already built in is President Biden.
Notably, a highly respected Emerson College poll released on Tuesday showed Trump with an even larger lead over Harris than over Biden: In a hypothetical two-way election, Trump was found to have a three-point lead over Biden nationally and a six-point lead over Harris.
News of internal Harris vs. Trump polling on Thursday Matched Report from Times Some of Biden’s aides are said to be developing a strategy to persuade him to drop out of the race.
Additionally, NBC News detail As of Thursday afternoon, multiple sources close to Biden were saying his bid for the White House was doomed.
“He needs to step back,” one Biden campaign official told NBC News. “He’s never going to recover from this.”
