Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are statistically tied in the latest national poll from Emerson College Polling, which found that Harris holds a slight lead that falls within the survey’s margin of error.
Harris edges out Trump in Emerson’s latest national survey with 50% of likely voters to Trump’s 48%, with 1% supporting a third party or independent candidate and 1% undecided.
“The margin between the candidates has stayed the same since early September, when Harris held 49% and Trump 47%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement released with the survey. “Harris maintains a slight edge, though less than Biden’s 4-point lead in Emerson 2020 national polls at this time.”
Emerson also found that voters are evenly divided when it comes to Harris’ favorability, with 50% holding a favorable view of the vice president and 50% holding an unfavorable view of her. Trump fared slightly worse, with 51% holding an unfavorable view of him and 49% being favorable. Additionally, President Joe Biden holds a negative job approval rating, with about 40% approving to about 55% disapproving of his performance.
The survey also included a generic congressional ballot that found Democrats just barely surpassing Republicans 47% to 46%, with 7% of voters undecided.
Most voters also said that Trump and Harris should hold a second debate, 56% compared to 35% who think they should not. Most Democrats, 69%, and more than half of independents, 58%, think the presidential candidates should hold another debate, while Republicans are more split, with 49% saying they think Trump and Harris should not debate again, and 41% think they should.
Emerson polled 1,000 likely voters across the country from Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 2024 with a margin of error of /- 3 percentage points.