Kamala Harris builds lead over Donald Trump in new poll, voters see her as debate winner

Washington: Democratic US Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47 per cent to 42 per cent in the race to win the November 5 presidential election, increasing her advantage after a debate against the former president that voters largely think she won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday.

The two-day poll showed Harris with a lead of 5 percentage points among registered voters, just above the four-point advantage she had over Trump in an August 21-28 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Coincidence or not, Trump said he would not participate in another presidential debate against Harris ahead of the election, after Harris called for one. He previously debated President Joe Biden.

“There will be no third debate!” the former president wrote on his social media site Truth Social.

Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris during the ABC News debate.Credit: AP

Among voters who said they had heard at least something about this week’s debate, 53 per cent said Harris won and 24 per cent said Trump won, with the rest saying neither had or not answering.

Fifty-two per cent of those familiar with the debate said Trump stumbled and didn’t appear sharp, while 21 per cent said that of Harris. Among Republican voters, one in five said Trump didn’t appear sharp.

Harris, 59, put Trump, 78, on the defensive in a combative presidential debate with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, highlighting Trump’s felony conviction on charges he falsified business records.

The poll found 52 per cent of voters familiar with the debate said Harris “gave the impression of having higher moral integrity”, compared to 29 per cent who said the same of Trump.

Many Republicans were also not convinced about their candidate’s performance. Fifty-three per cent of Republican voters said Trump won the debate, compared to 91 per cent of Democrats who said she was the victor. Among Republicans, 31 per cent said no one won and 14 per cent said Harris got the better of Trump.

The debate, hosted by ABC News, attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data, topping the roughly 51 million people who watched Trump debate then-candidate Biden in June.

Biden’s disastrous performance in that debate led to widespread calls by the 81-year-old leader’s fellow Democrats for him to drop his re-election bid, which he did in July. Now Trump is the older candidate in the race, and the poll found 52 per cent of voters consider Trump too old to work in government, compared to 7 per cent who said the same of Harris.

Asked which of the two appeared more dignified, 56 per cent of people familiar with the debate picked Harris, compared to 24 per cent who picked Trump. Forty-nine per cent said Harris “seemed like someone who would listen to me and understand my concerns”, compared to 18 per cent who saw Trump that way.

The poll surveyed 1690 US adults nationwide. It had a margin of error of around 3 percentage points for registered voters.

While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos polls give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with a handful of battleground states likely to be decisive.

Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter.