Kamala Harris leads polls with three key groups

Kamala Harris leads polls with three key groups

Vice President Kamala Harris has her biggest lead yet over former President Donald Trump thanks to additional support from three key demographic groups, according to a new poll.

A survey published by The economist/According to YouGov, as of Wednesday, the Democratic presidential nominee is leading the Republican former president by 4 percentage points, with 49% of registered voters preferring Harris and 45% supporting Trump.

The result is Harris’ largest national lead since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her on July 21. It is also the largest lead for a presidential candidate since Biden held a 5-point lead over Trump a year ago.

The apparent surge in polls, which followed what most consider a winning debate performance for Harris, appears to have been fueled in part by the Democrat securing her largest-ever lead among millennial voters, white voters and men.

Vice President Kamala Harris is pictured during her debate with former President Donald Trump in Philadelphia on September 10. A poll released Wednesday shows the vice president winning support among several key demographic groups.


SAUL LOEB/AFP

The latest poll, conducted earlier this week, found that 47% of registered male voters now support the vice president, a significant improvement from the 39% who backed her when she first entered the race.

Harris has also gained 6 points of support among all white voters since Biden dropped out of the race, going from 36% in July to 42% in the latest poll.

The strongest support for the Democrat came from millennials, with a 57% majority of voters ages 30 to 44 — a group largely made up of millennials — saying in the new poll that they prefer Harris, up from just 45% who supported her in July.

Additionally, support for Harris has improved significantly among black and Hispanic voters since July, with the vice president garnering the support of 78% of registered black voters and 60% of registered Hispanic voters in the latest poll.

In July, only 44% of Hispanic voters and 63% of black voters supported Harris. Hispanic support for Harris hit a record low in the new poll, while the vice president recorded her highest support rate among black voters, 81%, in late August.

According to the new poll, Trump has the edge over Harris among voters 45 and older. However, the only demographic groups that showed a majority of support for the former president were white voters (52%) and voters 65 and older (55%).

The poll also showed Harris received a 4 percent increase in overall support after the debate — the vice president and former president were tied at 45 percent just before their meeting in Philadelphia on September 10.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns by email Wednesday for comment.

The new poll was conducted among 1,445 registered U.S. voters between September 15 and 17, with a margin of error of 3.2 percent. Previous editions of the weekly poll each had margins of error of 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent among registered voters.

An average of recent national polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight shows Harris leading Trump by 3.3 percentage points as of Wednesday night, while a RealClearPolitics average shows the vice president leading by 2 points.

On the day of the debate, Harris led Trump by 2.5 points in the FiveThirtyEight average and 1.1 points in the RealClearPolitics average.