In one of the first national presidential polls since President Joe Biden exited the race, Vice President Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over rival Donald Trump. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, released Tuesday, shows Harris with 44 percent support compared to Trump’s 42 percent. This survey was conducted in the two days following Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he would not seek reelection and would endorse his vice president.
The previous week’s poll had Harris and Trump tied at 44 percent each. Harris, the favored candidate for the Democratic nomination, continues to gather significant endorsements, donations, and pledged delegates. However, in another survey released the same day, she narrowly trails Trump, the Republican nominee.
Both poll results fall within the margins of error, indicating a tightly contested race. The new surveys come after the Republican National Convention, where Trump accepted the party’s presidential nomination, and Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
Harris’s performance in these polls, driven by increased enthusiasm among Democratic voters following the shakeup, appears to counteract the typical post-convention bounce a nominee might receive.
According to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll conducted Monday, Trump slightly leads Harris among US registered voters, with 46 percent to Harris’s 45 percent, leaving nine percent undecided. Including third-party candidates or independents, Trump and Harris are tied at 42 percent, with other candidates trailing significantly.
The PBS News survey also revealed that 87 percent of Americans believe Biden’s decision to withdraw was appropriate, a sentiment shared across partisan and generational lines. A plurality of respondents (41 percent) believe Biden’s exit increases the Democrats’ chances in November, while 24 percent think it decreases their odds, and 34 percent see no impact.
These polls follow an eventful period in the campaign, with Trump surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13. Despite the incident, Trump maintains a slim advantage of 1.6 percentage points over Harris, according to an average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.
