WASHINGTON: A new poll confirmed on Sunday that Kamala Harris – who is set to name her imminent vice presidential pick – tied with Donald Trump, upending a White House race the Republican had been increasingly confident of winning .
With the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, Harris erased the ever-increasing lead Trump had been building before President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.
According to the CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, Harris has a 1 percent lead over Trump nationally — compared to Trump's previous five-point lead over Biden.
In the swing states that decide the Electoral College contest in the US election, Harris and Trump – who shocked the world with his presidential victory in 2016 but were defeated by Biden in 2020 – are tied.
Those are considered good numbers for a Democratic candidate who only dropped out of the race last month when Biden bowed out amid growing concerns about his mental acuity and ability at 81 to serve a second term.
But Harris, who is Biden's running mate and the first black and South Asian woman in the role, is in a sprint to define herself to voters before Trump does.
An important moment in the process will be when Harris announces her choice for the running mate in a historic bid to become America's first female president.
“It's her first big decision as chief executive, so it tells you about her thought process,” Amy Walter, a pollster at the Cook Political Report newsletter, told CBS News.
The CBS poll, which echoes numerous other polls showing fast gains for Harris, shows Trump is still favored by voters on the key issue of the economy.
Only 25 percent said they expected to be better off financially if Harris won, compared to 45 percent who said that about Trump.
However, when it comes to trusting the candidates' temperaments, the poll shows voters prefer the former California U.S. attorney over Trump, a convicted felon who has made a career out of publicly insulting those who oppose him – including during the presidency.
The issue of cognitive health, which used to distract Biden, is now a liability for Trump, 78, according to the poll. Only 51 percent of respondents thought Trump was mentally fit for the presidency, compared to 64 percent for Harris.
Democrats believe that if you “make this a referendum on Trump rather than a referendum on the current state of the economy, then we have a real opportunity to win,” Cook said.
Trump was on a political high last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally, then using the Republican convention to flash his image of vigor against the frail Biden.
But with Biden's dramatic exit and Harris' quick start, he's scrambling to recalibrate.
At a rally in the swing state of Georgia on Saturday, Trump called Harris a “Marxist” and a “far-left freak,” claiming she would cause an “economic crash.” On Wednesday, he shocked many when he told an audience of black journalists that Harris had “turned black” out of political expediency.
Where Biden has often attacked Trump as a threat to democracy, given his unprecedented refusal to accept his loss in 2020, Harris' team has honed a sharper — more meme-friendly — line built around brand of Trump and his “weird” VP pick JD Vance.
On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was “scared” to debate her after turning down a previously scheduled televised debate on ABC, while saying he would be ready to debate her on Fox News — a network that has offered her support for years. .
Who will she choose as her running partner?
All roads to the White House go through several swing states, and Harris will begin his five-day race Tuesday in the largest — Pennsylvania — as he builds momentum for a Nov. 5 showdown with Republican Donald Trump.
Harris is expected to pick a white man to balance the ticket — and likely a moderate Democrat who would help counterbalance Republican attacks on Harris for being too far left.
The three people considered to be at the top of the short list — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona — all visited Harris in Washington on Sunday, The Washington Post reported.
“Right now, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past… This campaign is about people coming together, fueled by love of country, to fight for all that is better. who we are,” she posted on X.
Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the nation's first black and South Asian woman vice president heads to the national convention in Chicago in two weeks with full control of her party.
In a campaign barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, drawn huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to sweeping the polls that Trump built before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Next on the agenda is the vice presidential pick, with an announcement expected any time before her Tuesday night rally with the mystery nominee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's largest city.
The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.
It is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, along with Michigan and Wisconsin – two states where Harris is expected to draw crowds on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania is governed by Democrat Shapiro, 51, one of the top players in the so-called “veepstakes” shortlist.
Later in the week, Harris will tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and the southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina as he tries to shore up the burgeoning black and Hispanic vote. had moved away from the Democrats.
Just a month ago, Trump was on cruise control, having opened up a significant lead in swing state polls following a dismal debate performance by Biden, with the Republican mogul keeping the country in suspense over his own vice presidential pick.
Trump's bid for the White House was upended on July 21 when Biden, 81, facing growing concerns about his age and late voting numbers, left the race and endorsed Harris.
Energetic and two decades younger than Trump, 78, the vice president is off to a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump's.
While Biden made lofty calls for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris focused on the future, making the hard-fought “freedom” of voters the touchstone of her campaign.
She and her allies have also been more aggressive than Biden's camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a Sept. 10 debate and characterizing the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “strange”.
While she has disavowed some of the left-wing positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris has not given a comprehensive interview since jumping into the race, and rally-goers will be looking for more details about her plans for the race. the country.
Meanwhile, Trump and his fellow Republicans have struggled to adjust to their new opponent or refine their attacks on Harris — at first the message that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime, before suggesting that she lied about being black.
