Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are in a neck-and-neck race, according to new polls.
Harris leads Trump by 1.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling data. Polls revealed a strong start to Harris’ campaign after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid. However, this lead appeared to decelerate.
New polls revealed varying results. Rasmussen Reports released a survey Thursday that found Trump leading by three percentage points. However, polls at Morning Consultant and CBS News showed Harris leading by four percentage points and three percentage points, respectively.
The race is tighter in battleground states likely to determine the election. The FiveThirtyEight aggregate of swing state polling shows a tie between Trump and Harris. The former president leads in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. Harris leads in Michigan and Wisconsin.
Betting markets show the vice president has a 50.5% chance of winning the election, according to electionbettingodds.com.
The latest polls have yet to fully reflect the impact of two major campaign developments over the past week: the Democratic National Convention and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to suspend his independent campaign and endorse Trump.
Harris’ speech at the DNC largely focused on her personal story and dodged acknowledgments of her record as vice president, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation,” she said. “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.”
Kennedy, in his concession speech, alleged the Democratic Party launched a “palace coup” against Biden to insert Harris on the ticket.
“Instead of showing us her substance and character, the DNC arranged a media surge,” he said.
Raghavan Mayur, who runs the historically accurate TIPP presidential poll, previously told DX the election “will be a tight race no matter what.”
“The race will get tighter when the honeymoon is over,” he said. “There’s a hide-and-seek game being played. The Democrats don’t want to expose Kamala as much. They want to keep her a best-kept secret and follow the success of Biden’s 2020 basement campaign.”
Mayur’s August poll showed Harris leading Trump in a head-to-head race by one percentage point.
Trump led Biden by three percentage points before the president dropped out.
“Kamala Harris is night and day compared to Biden,” Mayur previously told DX. “Some of the people on the fringes who departed with Biden may be coming back to the fold with Kamala. But it will be a tight race no matter what.”