Key Takeaways
- Kamala Harris is leading Donald Trump by 2% in the 2024 US election.
- The current margin between Harris and Trump is 2%.
- Harris will face Trump in her first debate on September 10.
Washington: Democrat Kamala Harris is leading Republican Donald Trump by two points to command a total of 49% of the votes likely to be cast in the 2024 election, according to the Emerson poll.
The latest in a series of electoral predictions to give the incumbent vice president an edge over the former president in the November 5 race for the White House, the national survey by Emerson College Polling showed Trump having the support of 47% of voting Americans.
Of the balance 4% of unaccounted voters, three percent were “undecided” and 1% “plan to vote for someone else”, the poll said on Thursday.
Harris and Trump are the only two major party contenders in the election. However, there are three other registered contestants for the White House race. Three other candidates are vying for the top spot, including Jill Stein, a 74-year-old activist and doctor, and Cornel West, a 70-year-old activist and academic.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, scion of the famous Kennedy family, dropped out of the race in August, endorsing Trump instead.
Harris herself became a candidate in her own right only in July, after President Joe Biden ended his bid for reelection and endorsed her as the Democratic standard-bearer following his disastrous nationally-televised debate with Trump. Prior to that, Harris had been Biden’s running mate for reelection as vice president.
And while she has maintained a lead over Trump after rising to the top of the Democratic ticket, her advantage has been slender. The two candidates are tied almost neck-to-neck in at least three battleground states in the election, a CNN poll showed Wednesday.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, concurred that the difference between the two candidates wasn’t much.
“Suburban voters are split overall: 48% support Harris and 47% Trump,” Kimball said. “Within this lies a gender divide, suburban men breaking for Trump by 17 points, 57% to 40%, and suburban women breaking for Harris by 18 points, 56% to 38%.”
In the 2020 election, the Democratic lead narrowed from four points to two in national polls before Biden re-established his four-point advantage in late September ahead of his first debate then with Trump.
Harris’ first debate with Trump will be on September 10.
