NEW YORK: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck in a major new national poll, with less than two months before the presidential Election Day.
The poll, from The New York Times and Siena College, has Trump at 48 percent to 47 percent for Harris among likely voters, within the poll’s margin of error. The results are similar to a survey from the pair from July, right after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.
While the Trump campaign endured a relatively rocky stretch in the weeks after Democratic President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, the most recent polling indicates the core of his support base remains solid.
Ms. Harris faces a challenge with voters who hold her responsible for the Biden administration’s handling of some issues, it was pointed out. About half of voters, largely Republicans, said Harris bore at least some blame for rising prices and problems during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. And nearly two-thirds of voters, from across the political spectrum, said she bore at least some blame for problems at southwestern border concerning the illegal migration of people From Mexico into the United States.
The new poll comes ahead of Ms. Harris and Trump’s ABC News debate on Tuesday night, the only scheduled debate so far between the two candidates. And that debate could be even more crucial for the vice president: According to the poll, 28 percent of likely voters said they feel like they need to learn more about Ms. Harris, compared to 9 percent who said they need to know more about Trump.
Additionally, 47 percent of likely voters viewed Ms. Harris as too liberal, while 32 percent of likely voters saw Trump as too conservative.
The NYT/Siena survey is one of the few high-quality, national polls that did not show the vice president receiving at least a small bump following her quickly capturing the nomination and her endorsement at the party’s nominating convention last month in Chicago.
As the Times notes, this is the first time Trump has had at least a nominal lead in a “major nonpartisan national survey” in about the last month. In The New York Times’ own polling averages, Ms. Harris has a slight lead over Trump, 49 percent to 47 percent. The Times’ survey has played an outsized role in American politics in recent years, often driving fundraising and news coverage more than any other individual national survey.
The poll was conducted among 1,695 registered voters between Sept. 3 and 6. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points among likely voters.
