Former President Trump edged ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris by a 48%-47% margin in a new national Quinnipiac poll of the race for the White House.
The survey, which was dead even when measured as a head-to-head contest, comes as a rare piece of good news for Trump amid a string of polls that have mostly showed the Democrat forging a slight lead since their debate two weeks ago.
With 41 days before Election Day, the poll represents a purported shift toward the Republican candidate after the last Quinnipiac poll showed Harris with a slender lead last month, perhaps signaling a boost in enthusiasm for Trump.
“All eyes are on which candidate can best stoke their supporters’ enthusiasm all the way to the finish line,” said Tim Malloy, a Quinnipiac poll analyst. “A slight shift suggests the Harris crowd is not roaring as loudly as it was last month.”
The poll came out on the same day as a CNN survey that showed Harris with a 1% national lead. Other national surveys in recent days have showed Harris with a slightly bigger lead.
The Quinnipiac poll gave Trump somewhat better approval numbers and also found more voters trust him to handle the economy and care about voters like them.
“The Harris-Trump battle to assure voters they have their backs is about as close as close can be and mirrors the horse race,” Malloy said.
By a more than 2-1 margin, voters said they wanted to see a second debate between the two candidates after Harris was widely deemed the winner of the first clash on Sept. 10.
Harris says she wants to debate Trump again but he says he won’t participate, claiming he won the first one, despite popular opinion.
With all the polls showing a close race, most pollsters concede that the more important battle is for the seven battleground states that will likely determine the winner.
Harris can wrap up 270 electoral votes by winning the three “Blue Wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, even if she loses the Sun Belt swing belt contests that include Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.
Trump would need to sweep the four Southern states and win one of the Rust Belt races, most likely Pennsylvania.
His tricky task was highlighted by Quinnipiac’s latest survey of the blue wall states showing Harris narrowly ahead in all three. She also holds a narrow lead in polling averages of Nevada.
