Harris leads Trump by 10 points in Virginia, flipping VCU poll in her favor after Biden dropout

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Vice President Kamala Harris has pulled ahead in Virginia, with a new Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) poll finding she has a 10-point lead over former president Donald Trump.

This poll was conducted by the VCU L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs from Aug. 26 to Sept. 6. As such, these results do not reflect any influence the Sept. 10 presidential debate may have had on Virginians’ voting intentions.

According to the university, 813 Virginians aged 18 or older were surveyed over the phone. They were randomly selected, both from lists of landlines and by random digit dialing cellphone numbers.

The final results, after weighing the responses against Virginia’s entire adult population, found that Harris is favored by 46% of voting-age adults and Trump is favored by 36%.

Notably, this comes two months after the VCU Wilder School’s previous poll , which pitted then-candidate President Joe Biden against Trump. In that poll, Trump led in Virginia by 3 points — meaning Harris has gained 13 total points among Virginians since accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Among party lines, respondents largely supported their respective candidate, with over 80% of Republicans supporting Trump and 81% of Democrats supporting Harris. According to the university, Independents favor Trump by 5 points (26% to 19%) — however, 22% said they would not vote at all and 11% said they were currently undecided.

“The latest results suggest that many former supporters of Kennedy are now backing Trump,” the university added.

The poll also assessed Virginia voters’ concerns and how they influenced voting intentions. According to the university, the top concern among Virginia voters is the cost of living (38%), followed by women’s reproductive rights (21%) and immigration (10%). This ranking is largely consistent with the July VCU poll.

Regarding the economy, respondents were asked which candidate they trusted more to tackle the issue. Harris and Trump were neck-and-neck, with Harris scraping a single-point lead (38% to 37%). About one-fifth of respondents (18%) said they trusted neither candidate. Among Independents, economic trust in Trump is substantially higher than Harris (36% to 18%) — but nearly the same amount of Independent respondents (34%) said they trusted neither candidate.

“These latest poll results show Harris’ focus on her support of women’s reproductive rights resonated well with respondents,” said L. Douglas Wilder, 66th governor of Virginia (D) and spokesperson for the poll, in a press release. “They also showed that Trump did not improve his numbers relative to who would best handle inflation, the economy and healthcare.”

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