Following President Biden’s decision to withdraw, the race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is close and it is unclear how it will turn out.
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday found Trump had the support of 49% of voters, while 47% backed Harris.
The former president held a slight lead in a hypothetical six-way race that included other candidates such as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with Trump receiving the support of 45% of voters and Harris 41%. Kennedy Jr. received the most support among independent or third-party candidates, with 6% of voters, according to the poll.
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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Joe Raedl/Getty Images)
“The dramatic shuffling of the Democratic candidate leadership had little impact on the race, with Vice President Harris entering the race with approval ratings on par with President Biden’s,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a news release about the poll results.
The poll is one of the first to be released since Biden decided on Sunday to drop out of the race, which the president said was “in the best interest of our party and our country.”
Pressure from his Democratic colleagues for the president to drop out of the race had been building for weeks, after his disastrous debate performance raised doubts about whether he could beat Trump in November’s presidential election.
President Biden descends the steps of Air Force One, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. (Susan Walsh/The Associated Press)
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Biden was quick to endorse Harris minutes after announcing his decision on X, saying in a subsequent post that his “first decision as the nominee of my party in 2020 was to select Kamala Harris as my Vice President.”
“And it was the best decision I ever made,” Biden continued. “Today, I want to fully endorse and support Kamala to be our party’s nominee this year. Democrats, now is the time to come together and defeat Trump. Let’s do it together.”
Harris will now aim to solidify support for her candidacy ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention and take on Trump in November.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the “First In The Nation” campaign rally at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, on February 2, 2024. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, the poll shows Trump’s approval rating is at its highest in the history of the poll, with 46% of respondents having a favorable view of the former president and 49% having an unfavorable view. The Quinnipiac University poll first began asking registered voters about their feelings toward Trump in May 2015.
The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted July 19-21 among 1,257 voters nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
