Vice President Harris holds a 7-point edge over former President Trump nationally in a new poll, marking the latest gain for the Democratic presidential candidate as the general election approaches.
A survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University, released last Friday, found Harris leading Trump 50 to 43 percent nationally, while 7 percent said they will vote for someone else. Trump and Harris fare equally well with voters from their party, each having 95 percent support from their partisans, pollsters found.
With independents who do not lean towards either party, Harris still leads Trump, but by a smaller margin, 38 to 33 percent, the poll found. Harris holds a large lead among self-identified liberals, 87 to 10 percent, along with progressives, 93 to 5 percent, and moderates, 62 to 30 percent.
The former president, meanwhile, leads among conservatives 76 to 19 percent, and MAGA [Make American Great Again] voters, 95 to 4 percent.
Pollsters noted race or gender played a large role in pushing Harris’s lead. When voters are asked to think about race or gender, Harris’s lead grows significantly, while support for her and Trump are virtually tied when they are not made to think about it, they said.
Trump saw his strongest support among men “who hold traditionally masculine identities,” while women and other men who reject these identities favor Harris, according to pollsters.
“Trump has built his political career around a very specific performance of whiteness and masculinity,” Dan Cassino, a professor of Government and Politics at Fairleigh Dickinson, and the executive director of the poll said in a release. “In the past, that’s been seen as a strength, but it’s no longer clear that it’s working.”
“Race matters in elections, but it’s not inevitable that voters are thinking about it,” he added. “Trump does reasonably well among non-white voters so long as they’re not thinking about race: once they are, we see a huge shift to Harris.”
Since replacing Biden atop the Democratic presidential ticket last month, Harris quickly gained momentum, posing a threat to the healthy lead Trump held over the president, both nationally and in swing states.
This is the latest poll suggesting good news for Harris, though some political strategists have suggested it is too early to make conclusions about the November election.
According to a polling index by Decision Desk HQ and The Hill, Harris has a 3.6 percent lead over Trump.
Trump dismissed the notion Harris has made gains in the polls last week.
When asked last Thursday by Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum about Harris’s increasing support in the polls, Trump said, “No, she’s not having success. I’m having success. I’m doing great with the Hispanic voters. I’m doing great with Black men. I’m doing great with women, because women want safety.”
The survey was conducted between Aug. 17-20 using a voter list of 801 registered voters nationwide. It was carried out by Braun Research and has a simple sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence interval.
