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Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic Candidate Kamala Harris (File Image)
Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over Donald Trump in a new poll, a boost for Democrats as the national convention begins. Harris leads by 4 points.
US Vice President Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over Republican rival Donald Trump in a national poll ahead of the upcoming presidential election, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos survey.
The poll shows Harris at 49 percent and Trump at 45 percent, marking a slight but notable improvement for Democrats since polls a month ago showed then-presidential nominee Joe Biden and Trump in a dead heat. When including third-party candidates, Harris stands at 47 percent, Trump at 44 percent, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 5 percent.
Tight race
Harris’s lead is a boost for the Democrats as their national convention begins tonight. At the convention, Harris will officially accept her nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate. Harris arrived in Chicago on Sunday ahead of her star turn at the Democratic National Convention, perhaps the most pivotal moment yet for her short but stunning election campaign against Trump.
Despite Harris’s current lead, the race remains tight. Seven key swing states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada—will be crucial in determining the outcome of the November election.
Vice President Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over former president Donald Trump in the presidential election, a notable improvement for Democrats, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. https://t.co/WXbSt5Y0Hx— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 18, 2024
The US vice president has energised the Democratic party after an astonishing couple of weeks that has seen her replace Biden at the top of the ticket and wipe out Republican rival Trump’s lead in the polls. On the way to Chicago, Harris stopped in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania — which Trump won in 2016 and Biden in 2020 — and embarked on a day-long bus tour in a bid to keep up the momentum.
Despite aggressive campaigning, Harris has insisted that Trump was still the favorite to win and that she would campaign hard with just 79 days until the November 5 election. “I very much consider us the underdog, we have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people,” Harris told reporters in Pennsylvania.
Amid Harris’ rapid rise, the 78-year-old former U.S. President Trump resorted to his favored tactic of personal insults against America’s first female, Black, and South Asian vice president. A day earlier, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump called Harris a “lunatic” and bragged that he was “much better looking” than the 59-year-old Harris.
Harris’s headline convention speech on Thursday will now be a vital opportunity to sell her story to an electorate that is still getting used to the new name at the top of the Democratic ticket. She is expected to cast the election as a “fight for the future” against a second Trump term, while promising an optimistic vision for Americans struggling with high prices. Harris is set to join Biden on stage when he addresses the convention on Monday — a speech that just a few weeks ago he expected to be giving as the Democratic candidate.
(With agency inputs)
