Senate Democrats are expressing concerns that recent polls have undercounted support for former President Donald Trump as several recent polls show Vice President Kamala Harris leading the Republican, The Hill reported.
More than a dozen polls released this month from outlets including NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, and the New York Post show Harris with a slim lead over Trump nationwide, while others, from outlets including Rasmussen Reports and Atlas Intel, show Trump in the lead or the two candidates tied, according to RealClearPolitics.
Despite these results, several Senate Democrats voiced their concerns over the weekend that these surveys may undercount the Trump vote, with many noting that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton similarly outperformed Trump in many polls leading up to her loss in the 2016 presidential election.
"Polling has really been seriously damaged since 2016. And that's one of the truths, is that Trump is going to be tough in Pennsylvania, and that's absolutely the truth," Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said on NBC News in an interview over the weekend.
One Democrat senator, whose name was withheld by The Hill so they could speak candidly, said it's "ominous" and "concerning" that Harris isn't polling as well as Clinton and President Joe Biden were before the 2016 and 2020 elections, respectively.
The senator added that pollsters have difficulty when conducting surveys about Trump, saying that many of his supporters don't want to talk with pollsters or don't want to discuss their political views.
"The only thing I can come up with is that people do feel embarrassed," the senator said. "Most of what he preaches, most of us have taught our children to try to not be that way on the playground. So there's a certain amount of reluctance to admit I'm going to vote for somebody whose conduct I tell my children is wrong."
Another Democrat senator, who also requested anonymity, said, "I don't think any poll right now means much of anything" about the presidential election.
"I'm surprised that people look back on the Trump economy [with the delusion of it] as being so good, which I think is the major factor that supports his approval rating," the senator added.