US Vice President Kamala Harris, the most likely candidate to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic Party nominee for the November 5 presidential elections, has narrowed the margin against Donald Trump, according to latest polls. There’s been a significant rise in support for her among non-white voters and within her party.
What polls say
The latest Wall Street Journal poll shows Harris and Trump neck-and-neck at 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup. However, the report states this was within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Earlier this month, Trump was in a six-point lead against Biden before he quit the race.
According to a New York Times/Siena College poll of 1,142 voters nationwide conducted between July 22-24, Trump leads Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters in a head-to-head match.
This is a significant improvement for the Democrats after numbers earlier this month showed Biden behind by six percentage points.
Besides this, the polls further state that Trump currently leads Harris 48% to 46% among the registered voters. Earlier, he led among registered voters by nine percentage points over Biden.
Harris’ gain primarily comes from parts of the Democratic coalition that earlier soured on Biden.
The US President was getting only 59% of Black registered voters in the New York Times poll a month ago. However, now Harris is expected to get 69% of these votes. Apart from that, Harris has also increased her party’s share of Hispanic voters from 45% to 57% and under 30 voters from 46% to 56%.
According to Bloomberg, an unweighted average of the polls conducted after Biden left the presidential race shows Harris trailing Trump by 1.6 percentage points.
Kamala Harris declares her candidacy
Harris, on Saturday, signed the forms officially declaring her candidacy for President of the United States. “I will work hard to earn every vote. And in November, our people-powered campaign will win,” she wrote on X.
This came after US President Joe Biden, 81, on July 21 announced his exit from the presidential race and endorsed Harris as the nominee of the party. Harris has further received support from former US President Barack Obama and ex-First Lady Michelle Obama.
The US vice president has secured the support of a majority of Democratic delegates and seems all set to be the official nominee at the party convention next month.
