Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal lead of 2 points over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and passed the torch to her, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, followed the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party's nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday that he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris.
Harris, whose campaign says she has secured the Democrat nomination, led Trump 44% to 42% in the national poll, a difference within the margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Harris and Trump were tied at 44% in a July 15-16 poll, and Trump led by 1 percentage point in a July 1-2 poll, both within the same margin of error.
While nationwide surveys give important signals of American support for political candidates, just a handful of competitive states typically tilt the balance in the Electoral College, which ultimately decides who wins a presidential election.
The most recent poll showed 56% of registered voters agreed with a statement that Harris, 59, was "mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges," compared to 49% who said the same of Trump, 78.
Only 22% of voters assessed Biden that way.
Biden, 81, ended his reelection effort after a debate with Trump in which he often stammered and failed to aggressively challenge attacks by Trump.
When voters in the survey were shown a hypothetical ballot that included independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Harris led Trump 42% to 38%, an advantage outside the margin of error. Kennedy, favored by 8% of voters in the poll, has yet to qualify for the ballot in many states ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
The poll, which was conducted online, surveyed 1,241 adults nationwide, including 1,018 registered voters.
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