Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
01-08-2024
WASHINGTON: United States Vice President Kamala Harris has erased former President Donald Trump’s lead in the race for the White House, with the Democratic and Republican standard-bearers now locked in a dead heat, and newly released polling shows.
Harris has closed the gap with Trump both nationwide and in key battleground states since becoming the de facto Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 presidential race, according to a series of polls published on Tuesday.
Harris leads Trump in four key battleground states and the former president is ahead in two, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of registered voters.
The vice president leads Trump in Michigan by 11 percentage points and by two points in Arizona, Wisconsin and Nevada, according to the poll.
Trump has a four-point advantage in Pennsylvania and a two-point lead in North Carolina, while the pair are tied in Georgia. Apart from Michigan and Pennsylvania, all of the results are within the margin of error. If the outcome of the poll was replicated on Election Day, the candidate who won Georgia would be elected president.
In a poll commissioned by the Democratic super PAC Progress Action Fund, Harris leads Trump 48 percent to 47 percent in Georgia, with Trump ahead by two points in Arizona and Pennsylvania. All the polling results, which were first published by The Hill, were within the margin of error. In a nationwide poll, Harris leads Trump 43 percent to 42 percent, which is within the margin of error.
The slew of positive polling comes after Harris rapidly consolidated support among Democrats following Biden’s decision to step aside after months of poor polling driven by concerns about his age and fitness.
Harris, who will be formally named the Democratic nominee on Monday, is expected to announce her running mate within days before embarking on a tour of swing states that will decide the election on November 5.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, among others, have been floated as contenders for the vice presidential pick.
During a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, Harris said that momentum in the race was shifting and there were signs Trump was “feeling it.”
Harris, who has taken aim at Trump’s legal woes and stances on healthcare and abortion, challenged her rival to keep his commitment to debate her in September after the Republican said he could “make a case” for skipping the event.
“Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” she said. “Because as the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face.’”
United States President Joe Biden has heeded calls to withdraw his re-election bid, thrusting this year’s already high-wire race for the White House into an uncertain territory. The announcement on Sunday by the oldest sitting president in US history came amid mounting pressure from his fellow Democrats, with more than 30 Congress members publicly pushing for his exit.
In a post on X, Biden, 81, said he will remain in his role as president and commander-in-chief until his term ends in January 2025 and will address the nation this week. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden wrote. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
