WASHINGTON: US presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is incredibly close, showed a new Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll, revealing a surge in support for Harris among non-white voters and a significant rise in enthusiasm among Democrats for her campaign, reported Xinhua.
In a head-to-head matchup, Trump maintains a slight lead, garnering 49 per cent of the vote compared to 47 per cent for Harris. However, it is worth noting that this falls within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Previously, Trump had a six-point advantage over President Joe Biden before he withdrew from the race and endorsed Harris.
When other independent and third-party candidates, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr, were included in the ballot test, Harris received 45 per cent of the support, compared to 44 per cent for Trump. Kennedy had the backing of only 4 per cent of respondents, and 5 per cent remained undecided. In the previous poll, Biden trailed Trump by six points in this multi-candidate scenario, as indicated by the poll results.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are currently engaged in a race to establish a clearer public image of the vice president. The poll indicates that Harris is viewed favourably by 46 per cent of respondents and unfavourably by 52 per cent, marking her most positive result in the poll during this election cycle. This marks her highest favourability rating in the poll during the current election cycle.
According to the poll results, Trump is perceived as more capable than Harris in handling immigration, the economy, foreign relations, and crime. However, Harris holds an advantage of 51 per cent to 33 per cent when it comes to dealing with abortion. The two received similar ratings when it came to caring about people like the respondents.
The poll further revealed that 48 per cent of respondents believe that, at the age of 78, Trump is too old to serve as president, while only 2 per cent expressed the same concern about the 59-year-old Harris.
Furthermore, 46 per cent of respondents believed that Harris possesses the right temperament to be president, compared to only 38 per cent who held the same belief about Trump.
The survey highlighted that many voters are still in the process of familiarising themselves with the potential vice presidential running mates being considered by Harris. It is expected that she will need to announce her pick by August 7 to meet the deadline set by her party for a virtual nomination process.
The Wall Street Journal poll, conducted by Bocian of the firm GBAO and Lee of Fabrizio Lee, involved interviews with 1,000 registered voters from July 23-25. – Bernama, Xinhua
