According to a survey conducted by the Morning Consult following the highly publicized debate on Sept. 10, Vice President Harris has begun to widen her lead over former President Trump in the public eye.
The Morning Consult poll found that Harris is leading by five points over Trump, rising from the only three and four points lead she held in the same survey before the Philadelphia debate hosted by ABC. In the following days, Harris has been regarded as largely successful during the debate. The rising support for her is reflective of the public opinion of her. Over 50% of poll respondents indicated that they would vote for Kamala Harris if the election were to be held today. In contrast, only 45% of respondents said they would vote for the former president following Tuesday’s debate.
More surprisingly, she also leads Trump among independent voters, comparing her 46% support to his 40%.
The Morning Consult analysts wrote, “It’s too early to say whether Harris’ debate performance is the key driver of our latest head-to-head numbers, as our short-term trends suggest she was already building momentum ahead of Tuesday’s televised match-up.”
The analysis posited that Harris’ moving debate performance will continue to offer her momentum among voters.
In addition to the larger polling, more immediate data suggested that Harris is favored as the winner of the debate after she managed to draw Trump into spreading “conspiracy theories,” shouting, and avoiding eye contact with her. Poll respondents claimed that she outperformed him while discussing issues of immigration and abortion and overall seemed to dominate the stage over him.
The Morning Consult survey was conducted just one day after the debate and prefaced that it took data “among at least 3,317 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.”
Harris and Trump met for the first time on the Philadelphia debate stage in a pivotal moment for the vice president.
Harris introduced her different policy ideas to Trump and stood on her own without President Biden.
Trump has since said that he will not enter into another debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump told media outlets, “We’ve done two debates, and because they were successful, there will be no third debate.”
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