NBC, CBS polls show Harris gaining ground as election focus shifts to Trump – National
WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris led Republican rival Donald Trump by five percentage points in an NBC News poll released on Sunday that showed respondents viewed her more favorably since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
Asked about their opinion of Harris since she became a candidate, 48 percent of the 1,000 registered voters surveyed said she was positive, up from 32 percent in July — the biggest jump in ratings of politicians surveyed by NBC since President George W. Bush’s popularity soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Asked about Trump, 40% of respondents said they viewed him positively, up from 38% in July, the news network said. The poll, conducted Sept. 13-17, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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Another CBS News poll also found Harris leading Trump by 4 percentage points, 52% to 48%, among likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The results are broadly in line with other recent national polls, including those by Reuters/Ipsos, which show a tight race heading into the November 5 election.
While national polls provide important signals about voter sentiment, state-by-state Electoral College results determine the winner, with a handful of key states likely to be decisive.
Trump, 78, is running for the White House for a third consecutive term after losing to Joe Biden in 2020, which he continues to falsely attribute to widespread voter fraud while facing federal and state criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the election results.
Harris, 59, is a former U.S. senator and attorney general currently serving under Biden. She would be the first woman to serve as president in the country’s 248-year history.
“She’s managed to turn this race from a referendum on Joe Biden to a race that’s a referendum on Donald Trump,” Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In a CBS poll of 3,129 registered voters conducted Sept. 18-20, Harris gained 2 percentage points from a 50-50 split in August, buoyed by her performance in the Sept. 10 debate and encouraging economic news.
