USA Today/Suffolk Poll Reveals Harris Making Inroads On Three Big Issues For Voters

A new USA Today/Suffolk poll published on Tuesday uncovered how much progress Vice President Kamala Harris is making with voters on several key issues, including the economy and immigration.

While Harris still trailed former President Donald Trump on these issues, the numbers showed that she cut Trump’s lead by several points compared to President Joe Biden before he withdrew from the race in late July:

On the economy, voters’ top concern, Trump was favored over Harris by 6 percentage points, 51%-45%. That’s an asset, to be sure, but it is less than half the 14-point advantage he held over Biden in June.

On immigration, an issue that energizes Republican voters, Trump was favored by 3 points, 50%-47%, down from the 13-point preference he had over Biden.

On national security and on dealing with China, Trump was preferred over Harris by 4 points, down from 10 points over Biden.

On health care and on race relations, Harris had double-digit advantages of 14 points and 19 points. Both were wider than the 10-point advantages that Biden held.

Overall, the poll reported that Harris led Trump 48-43 percent, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points. And while enthusiasm for Harris was evident (68 percent of Harris supporters responded that they were “very excited” to vote for her, compared to 30 percent for Biden; 60 percent of Trump supporters said the same about their preferred candidate), that enthusiasm extended down ballot:

In June, registered voters said they supported their local Republican congressional candidate over the Democratic one by a narrow 47%-45%. Now likely voters support the Democratic candidate over the Republican by 48%-43%, still a small margin but a swing of seven points.

USA Today/Suffolk polled 1,000 likely voters in the days after the Democratic National Convention, from August 25-28 via landline and cell phone.

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