US Vice President Kamala Harris leads her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, by 5 percentage points.
A recent NBC News poll conducted on Sunday shows a substantial increase in Kamala Harris since her nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate. Among the 1,000 registered voters surveyed, 48% now have a positive opinion of Harris, a significant jump from 32% in July. This increase is the largest surge in politician ratings observed by NBC since the boost in President George W. Bush’s popularity following the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Conversely, 40% of respondents hold a positive view of Trump, a slight increase from 38% in July. The poll, conducted from September 13-17, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
A similar CBS News poll also shows Harris ahead of Trump by 4 percentage points, 52% to 48%, among likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
These results align with other recent national polls, such as those by Reuters/Ipsos, indicating a tight race as the November 5 election approaches. While national polls provide a snapshot of voter sentiment, the Electoral College will ultimately decide the outcome, with several key battleground states playing a critical role.
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Trump, 78, is making his third consecutive White House bid, having lost to Joe Biden in 2020—a loss he continues to erroneously attribute to widespread voter fraud, even as he faces federal and state criminal charges related to efforts to overturn those results.
Harris, 59, a former US senator and prosecutor, is the current Vice President under Biden. If elected, she would be the first woman to serve as president in the nation’s 248-year history.
Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, commented on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Harris has shifted the campaign focus from a referendum on Joe Biden to a referendum on Donald Trump.
In another CBS poll of 3,129 registered voters conducted September 18-20, Harris gained 2 percentage points from a 50-50 split in August, bolstered by her performance in the September 10 debate and positive economic developments.
