Former President Donald Trump is maintaining his lead nationally, seemingly shrugging off a burst of enthusiasm for Democrats after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race.
Trump garnered the support of 48% of likely voters compared to 47% who indicated support for Harris, according to the latest results of the New York Times/Siena poll released on Sunday.
The results are essentially identical to the last time the New York Times/Siena poll asked voters for their preference in the aftermath of President Biden dropping out of the race in late July, with that poll also showing Trump with a 48-47 lead.
The poll comes after weeks of increased enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket after Harris took over for Biden, though the New York Times argued that it appears Trump’s support is ‘remarkably resilient’ to the stunning changes to the election landscape.
The poll found that Harris has yet to sell voters on her vision for the country, with 28% of respondents indicating that they felt like they needed to know more about her in order for her to earn their support. In contrast, only 9% indicated similar concerns about Trump.
‘I don’t know what Kamala’s plans are,’ said Dawn Conley, a 48-year-old small-business owner in Knoxville, Tenn., who is leaning toward Trump, told the New York Times.
The poll also found that while Harris has made gains with key demographics to the Democratic coalition after Biden’s decision to drop out, she is still falling short of traditional Democratic strength among groups such as women and Latino voters.
Also working against Harris is the voters’ preference for change, with 60% indicating they would like to see a major change from the policies of Biden. Only 25% of respondents said Harris would represent that kind of change, while 53% believe Trump would.
But the poll’s news wasn’t all bad for Harris, who may hold the critical enthusiasm lead over Trump as November quickly approaches. The poll found that 91% of Democrats were enthusiastic about voting, while 85% of Republicans indicated the same.
The New York Times/Siena poll surveyed 1,695 registered voters between September 3 and September 6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
