Republican pollster Frank Luntz suggested that while former President Trump has the issues on his side, his “persona” is contributing to the drop in the polls in the race against Vice President Harris.
“If it’s about issues, Trump is much more likely to be successful. If it’s about attributes, Harris is much more likely to be successful, because quite frankly, people like her more than they like him. It’s something that, if he’s watching this right now, his head is exploding — and that’s part of the problem,” Luntz said over the weekend in a CNN interview.
“He has lost touch with the people that he needs, and she is in perfect touch,” Luntz added, pointing to the bolstered energy during Harris’s recent campaign rallies.
“Donald Trump should be winning based on those beliefs, and they are widely, and the spread is significant. And yet he’s not. And the reason why, in the end, is Donald Trump the persona,” Luntz added.
Since replacing President Biden at the top of the Democratic presidential ticket in late July, Harris has energized the party’s base and seen a surge in the polls against Trump. Her rallies drew thousands of attendees last week, which the campaign has touted against Trump, who has long looked to crowd size as a measure of support.
Trump has repeatedly bashed Harris and her newly tapped running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), and accused their campaign of faking the “massive crowd sizes.”
The enthusiasm for Harris has shown itself in the polls, where the vice president has narrowed the lead Trump maintained when facing Biden. A Decision Desk HQ polling aggregation Monday showed Harris with a 0.4 percent lead over Trump, while polling from The New York Times/Siena College over the weekend found she is up 4 points in three battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Trump has brushed off the surge for Harris and suggested the “honeymoon” phase will end.”
“I’m doing really well in the Presidential Race, leading in almost all of the REAL Polls,” he wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday night. “And this despite the Democrats unprecedentedly changing their Primary Winning Candidate, Sleepy Joe Biden, midstream, with a Candidate, Kamala Harris, who failed to get even a single Primary Vote, and was the first out of 15 Democrat Candidates to quit the race.”
“My team is doing a great job despite the constant 8 year obstacle of dealing with the Fake News and low self esteem leakers. We are going to WIN BIG and take our Country back from the Radical Left Losers, Fascists, and Communists. We will, very quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he added.
With the surge for Harris occurring before the Democratic convention later this month, Luntz argued she will get another “bounce” following the event.
Nonetheless, the GOP pollster argued Harris still needs to answer to the press and public about her policy stances.
“What happens when she faces people like you asking questions like yours? That’s significant. She hasn’t had to do it, and eventually she will be forced to do so,” he said. “But as it’s happening right now, her attributes versus Trump’s issues — she’s got the lead.”
Harris has come under scrutiny from the Trump campaign for declining to take questions from reporters in the nearly three weeks since launching her White House bid.
She fielded questions from reporters traveling with her in Michigan last Thursday and said she hoped to sit for an extended interview before the end of the month.
“I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month,” Harris said before boarding Air Force Two.