New polls find Harris gaining on Trump, but race still remains too close to call

Another day leading up to the US presidential elections and another poll is released. With just weeks left before voters elect either Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump to lead the nation, another poll has confirmed what many already know to be the truth: it’s going to be a close race.
According to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll, voters are likely to choose Harris, 59, more than Trump, 78, for representing change and caring about the electorate. The vice president has also taken a slight lead in the national polls against her opponent in the race to win the keys to the White House.
This marks the first time Harris has led Trump in the Times/Sienna polls since July, when US President Joe Biden had quit the race and Harris was propelled to the presidential spotlight, The New York Times reported.
Surveys and polls from across the states seem to be saying the same thing: it’s going to be a close race with the result balanced on a knife’s edge.
The polls also show significant advantages for the former president.
Conducted from September 29 to October 6 amongst 3,385 likely voters, the poll learnt that Harris led Trump by 49% to 46%, a slender lead within the poll’s margin of error.
Interestingly, the two candidates were tied at 47% each in the mid-September Times/Siena poll, conducted right after the first presidential debate between the two.
“The age difference between the two candidates makes a huge difference on change,” said Darry Knox, 58, a Democrat in Memphis who told The New York Times that he intended to vote for Harris. “They see the world differently. They look at the world differently, and they have different views about the world.”
Notably, Trump, too, has some advantages up his sleeves. .
The former president is popular amongst male voters, leading polls by 11 points. He beat them against Biden by two points in 2020.
Furthermore, 42% of people who were polled said the former president’s policies had helped them personally; only 22% said that about Biden.
Voters also noted that they trusted Trump more than Harris for one of the most pressing issues this election cycle — the economy.
According to the polls, 75% of respondents admitted they thought the economy was in fair or poor condition, the same as last month.
“As a businessman, I think Trump can see the bigger picture, and he can say, ‘Oh, maybe we can do this to help people,’” said Barbara Storesina, 65, a retired school secretary in Canton, Ohio. “Whereas the Democrats and Harris, I don’t feel that they care about the average person like me. They don’t care about whether we’re struggling or whether we need help with something.”
A good way to gauge voters’ mood are national polls, but the reality remains that the numbers are not suggestive of what the Electoral College outcome might be, something that will only be decided by the battleground states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
These are the states where the polls have been too close to call the race and where both the candidates have been spending considerable time campaigning in recent weeks.
According to the polls, these battlegrounds have realigned in surprising ways.
Trump, for instance, leads by 13 points in Florida, a state which only recently became competitive for Democratic candidates. He also leads by six points in Texas, a state that Democrats have long been hoping to turn blue.