With less than two weeks to go until the November 5 US presidential election, republican candidate Donald Trump has gained a slight lead over his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, a new Wall Street Journal poll found on Wednesday.
The poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters from October 19-22 and found that Trump leads Harris 47% to 45% with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points
The survey suggested that a barrage of negative advertising in the campaign and the performance of the candidates themselves have “undermined” some of the positive impressions of Harris that voters developed after she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee in July.
Voters also gave Harris, 60, her worst job rating as vice president in the three times the WSJ asked about it since July, with 42% approving and 54% disapproving of her performance.
On the other hand, voters favoured Trump’s policies but questioned his stability and other personal qualities. He also expanded his lead as the candidate best able to handle the economy, with more voters choosing him over Harris by 12 points, compared with 8 points in August.
The 79-year-old Trump, currently the oldest nominee for president in United States history, also led Harris on handling immigration.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll, however, found this week that Harris held a marginal 46% to 43% lead nationally over the former president.
The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, showed that voters have a dim view of the state of the economy and immigration – and they generally favour Trump’s approach on these issues.
Some 70% of registered voters in the poll said their cost of living was on the wrong track, while 60% said the economy was heading in the wrong direction and 65% said the same about immigration policy.
Nearly 25 million voters have so far cast ballots, either through in-person early voting or mail-in ballots, according to tracking data from the Election Lab at the University of Florida.