A new New York Times/Siena College poll shows former President Donald Trump pulling ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris by a slim margin.
Recent data now shows Trump polling at 48% with Harris behind by one point at 47% and 6% of voters still being undecided, according to the New York Times/Siena College. The poll, conducted from Sept. 3 to Sept. 6, surveyed 1,695 registered voters nationwide and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for the likely electorate and plus or minus 2.6 percentage points for registered voters.
When including voters leaning toward third-party candidates, data shows Trump drops to 46% support but remains two points ahead of Harris at 44%, with 4% being undecided. Additionally, 2% of voters supported Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver.
However, when leaning voters were not included in the survey, Trump held 44% of the vote, with Harris at 42%, 7% undecided, 3% refusing to vote and 2% going to each Stein and Oliver, according to the polling.
In late August, Journalist and author Mark Halperin stated on a live stream that the Democratic Party may be in a “scary position” come this November as polling within battleground states shows Harris is “well within the margin of error.”
“There’s some public polling already, there’s more coming. There’s some private polling that suggests that nationally in the battleground states, she’s not ahead. She might be ahead on paper, but well within the margin of error. And there’s some battleground states now where I think Donald Trump, on this trajectory, is going to be ahead,” Halperin said.
The vice president has been under scrutiny for initially appearing to avoid an in-depth press interviews and failing to release a full policy platform on her website. As Harris has slowly unveiled some of her policy plans through speeches, such as her economic goals on housing and tax credits, she has faced major pushback from pundits on both sides.
Critics have specifically warned her proposal for a federal ban on “corporate price gouging” to lower grocery prices, warning it could drive prices up and create black markets.
However, despite finally sitting for an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash in late August alongside her running mate and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the vice president was unable to detail why her campaign aides have flip-floppedon a handful of far-left policies she once campaigned on during her run for president in 2020.
While a majority of voters viewed both Trump and Harris as “very unfavorable” candidates, the poll shows voters strongly believe Trump would perform better on the economy and immigration. An estimated 56% of voters said Trump would handle the economy better than Harris, with 53% stating he would do better on immigration, however, 55% believed Harris would handle abortion better.
Of the 1,374 voters who completed the survey, 21% said the economy was their top concern for the November election, followed by 14% citing abortion, 12% immigration, and 7% inflation and cost of living, according to New York Times/Siena College data.
Additionally, data shows that more voters attribute “some blame” to Harris for rising prices, border issues and the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.