Washington: A new poll confirmed on Sunday that Kamala Harris – quickly named her vice-presidential choice – is pulling level with Donald Trump, changing the race for the White House that the Republican was increasingly confident of winning.
With the Nov. 5 election fast approaching, Harris has erased the growing lead Trump was building before President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.
According to a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday, Harris has a one percentage point advantage over Trump nationwide — compared to Trump's previous five-point edge over Biden.
In the swing states that decide Electoral College contests in the US election, Harris and Trump – who shocked the world with his 2016 presidential victory but were beaten by Biden in 2020 – are evenly matched.
Those are considered good numbers for the Democratic candidate who parachuted into the race just last month, when Biden bowed out amid growing concerns over his mental acuity and ability to serve a second term at the age of 81.
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.
A big moment in that process will be when Harris announces her choice for running mate in a historic bid to become America's first female president.
Amy Walter, a polling expert at the Cook Political Report newsletter, told CBS News, “This is her first major decision that she's making as executive, so that tells you about her thought process.”
The CBS poll, which echoes several other polls indicating rapid gains by Harris, shows that Trump is still favored by voters on the key issue of the economy.
Only 25 percent said they expected Harris to win financially, compared to 45 percent who said the same about Trump.
However, when it comes to trust in the candidates' temperaments, voters prefer the former California prosecutor to Trump, a convicted felon who has made a career out of publicly insulting those who oppose him — while president.
The issue of cognitive health, which eluded Biden, is now a liability for the 78-year-old Trump, the survey found. Only 51 percent of respondents thought Trump was mentally fit for the presidency, compared to 64 percent for Harris.
Democrats believe that if you “have this referendum on Trump instead of a referendum on the current state of the economy, we have a real opportunity to win,” Cook said.
Trump was riding high politically after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally last month, then used the Republican convention to highlight his image of strength against a physically frail Biden.
But with Biden's dramatic exit and Harris' rapid start, he's scrambling to recalibrate.
At a rally in the swing state of Georgia on Saturday, Trump called Harris a “Marxist” and a “northern left-wing freak” and claimed he would cause an “economic crash.” On Wednesday, he surprised many when he told an audience of black journalists that Harris had become “black” out of political utility.
Where Biden has often attacked Trump as a threat to democracy, given his unprecedented refusal to concede defeat in 2020, Harris' team has honed in on a sharper — more meme-friendly — line built around branding Trump and his vice presidential pick JD Vance as “weird.”
On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was “scared” to debate her after rejecting a previously scheduled televised debate on ABC, while he said he was open to a debate on Fox News — a network that has supported him for years. .
Who will she choose as a runmate?
All roads to the White House pass through a handful of swing states, and Harris will begin her five-day run Tuesday in the biggest one — Pennsylvania — as she builds momentum for her Nov. 5 showdown with Republican Donald Trump.
Expectations are that Harris will pick a white man to balance the ticket — and possibly a moderate Democrat who will help Harris fend off attacks from Republicans who say she's too far to the left.
Three people seen to be at the top of the short list — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly — were all visiting Harris in Washington on Sunday, the Washington Post reported.
“At this moment, we are faced with a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and one focused on the past… This campaign is about people coming together to fight for the best, motivated by love of country. That is who we are,” He posted on X.
Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the country's first female, black and South Asian vice president entered the national convention in Chicago in two weeks with full control of her party.
In the nearly two-week-old campaign, the 59-year-old former prosecutor destroyed fundraising records, drew large crowds and dominated social media on his way to erasing the poll lead Trump had built before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Next on the agenda is the vice presidential pick, with a mystery candidate expected to be announced any time Tuesday evening at his rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's largest city.
The Keystone State is the most valuable real estate among the close battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.
It's part of the “blue wall” that propelled Biden to the White House in 2020, along with Michigan and Wisconsin — two states where Harris will wow crowds on Wednesday.
Pennsylvania is governed by Shapiro, a 51-year-old Democrat, the frontrunner on the so-called “veepstake” shortlist.
Later in the week, Harris will visit the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, as she seeks to shore up black and Hispanic votes away from Democrats.
A month ago, with Trump on cruise control, Biden opening up a significant lead in swing state polls after a disappointing debate performance, the Republican tycoon kept the country in suspense over his choice of vice president.
Trump's White House bid was reversed on July 21 when Biden, 81, dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris in the face of growing concerns about his age and lagging poll numbers.
Energetic and two decades younger than the 78-year-old Trump, the vice president is off to a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to his campaign — more than double Trump's.
While Biden made high-minded appeals for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris focused on the future, making voters' hard-fought “freedom” a touchstone of his campaign.
He and his aides have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his pledge at the Sept. 10 debate and portraying a convicted felon as an old crook and “weird.”
Despite repudiating some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris has not given extensive interviews since jumping into the race, and rally-goers will be looking for more details about her plans. the country
Trump and his Republicans, meanwhile, have struggled to adapt to their new opponent or refine their attacks against Harris — first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime, before suggesting she was lying about being black.
