Harris tops Trump by 3 points in national survey

With just more than a month until Election Day, Vice President Harris has a 3 percentage point advantage over former President Trump nationally, according to a poll released Wednesday,

The Economist/YouGov survey shows 48 percent of respondents said they would support Harris compared to 45 percent who favored Trump. The former president leads with independents, however, garnering 40 percent to Harris’s 32 percent.

When asked who they think will win the election, regardless of preference, 40 percent of survey respondents said the vice president, while 35 percent said the former president. Roughly 25 percent were unsure, according to the poll.

Harris has an edge over Trump of 10 percentage points among women, while the GOP nominee has a 4-point lead among men. The Democratic nominee also has a double-digit lead over the former president among those with an annual income of more than $100,000. Those with a lower income were more evenly divided, the pollster notes.

The survey also found Democrats were seemingly more enthusiastic about voting in November. About 68 percent of Democrats said they were “extremely” or “very enthusiastic” about casting their ballots, compared to 59 percent of Republicans, the data shows.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters — 57 percent — also said they were ready to elect a female president. Broken down by gender, 58 percent of women and 55 percent of men were in favor. On the other side, 23 percent of survey respondents said the U.S. was not ready to elect its first female leader, while 20 percent were unsure.

About 53 percent of Americans said they hope the U.S. is able to elect a woman to be president during their lifetime, according to the survey.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s national polling index shows Harris with a 4.2 point lead over Trump — 50 percent to 46 percent.

The Economist/YouGov poll was conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 — before the vice presidential debate between Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and after Hurricane Helene hit the Southeastern U.S., bringing deadly wind and flood damage.

The survey included 1,638 likely voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.