New poll shows Harris taking a slim lead over Trump thanks to support from a surprising group
Increased support from Republicans appears to be one factor fueling Vice President Kamala Harris with four weeks to go until Election Day in her White House showdown with former President Trump, according to a new national poll.
The vice president and Democratic presidential nominee stands at 49% support among likely voters nationwide, with the former president and GOP nominee at 46%, in a New York Times/Siena College survey released on Tuesday.
According to the poll, Harris stands at 47% and Trump at 44% in a multi-candidate field. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Chase Oliver each grabbed 1%, with roughly 7% supporting another candidate or undecided.
Harris’ edge – which is within the survey’s sampling error – is up from the New York Times/Siena poll from last month, when the two major party nominees were deadlocked at 47%.
The top-line number in the new poll is in the range of most other national surveys, which indicate the vice president with a slight edge over Trump.
The poll indicates Harris’ support among Republican voters stands at 9%, up four points from last month.
As she turns up the volume on her efforts to court Republicans disgruntled with Trump, Harris last week teamed up with the most visible anti-Trump Republican in the town that claims to be the birthplace of the GOP.
Harris campaigned in battleground Wisconsin with former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a one-time rising conservative star in the GOP who, in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, has vowed to do everything she can to prevent Trump from returning to power.
‘I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,’ Cheney told the audience as she formally endorsed the Democrat presidential nominee. ‘As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.’
Harris praised Cheney as a leader who ‘puts country above party and above self, a true patriot.’
The campaign event took place in Ripon, Wisconsin, where a one-room schoolhouse was designated a national historic landmark due to its role in holding a series of meetings in 1854 that led to the formation of the Republican Party.
The new poll also indicated Harris consolidating her support among older voters, and for the first time taking a slight edge over Trump in being identified as the candidate of change.
That’s crucial in a race where voters have repeatedly shared with pollsters that they think the country’s headed in the wrong direction. And the Trump campaign, feeding off such polling data, has repeatedly tied Harris to President Biden and their administration in the nearly three months since she replaced her boss at the top of the Democrats’ 2024 ticket.
The poll was conducted Sept. 29-Oct. 6, with 3,385 likely voters nationwide questioned. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.