Vice President Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in the first Reuters poll taken since she became the presumptive nominee, following President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the race.
"Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her," the Reuters/Ipsos poll found. "The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, followed both the Republican National Convention where Trump on Thursday formally accepted his party's nomination and the Biden announcement on Sunday he was leaving the race and endorsing Harris."
Harris led Trump 44 percent to 42 percent in the Reuters national poll. Though the difference was within the margin of error (3 percent), it's an improvement on a Reuters poll taken July 15-16, before Biden quit the race, which tied the Biden/Harris campaign with Trump at 44 percent.
Also positive for Harris: "When voters in the survey were shown a hypothetical ballot that included independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Harris led Trump 42 percent to 38 percent, an advantage outside the margin of error. Kennedy, favored by 8 percent of voters in the poll, has yet to qualify for the ballot in many states ahead of the Nov. 5 election."
It's also an improvement on a Reuters poll taken July 1-2, when Trump led Biden by one percentage point.
"Some 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," the poll found.
Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee for president quickly after Biden left the race, and now has endorsements from all major Democrats except former President Barack Obama.
