Vice President Kamala Harris has opened up leads over Trump on mental fitness, having mainstream positions, and voter excitement in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
According to the latest CBS News/YouGov Poll:
Now it is the Democrat, Harris, who’s seen by more as having the cognitive and mental health to serve, and Trump comparatively less so. (This was very different in our national polling when Mr. Biden was still running.).
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Harris may benefit from her positions being seen as more “mainstream” than “extreme.” Most voters describe Trump’s positions as “extreme.”
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Harris bests Trump in excitement among partisans. Democrats are more excited about what they’ve seen from her campaign recently than Republicans are about what they’ve seen from Trump’s.
On mental fitness, Harris leads Trump by 15-20 points in the three battleground states. Harris leads Trump by 7-11 points on excitement, and she leads Trump 54%-44% on being more mainstream, and Trump leads 56%-44% on being viewed as more extreme.
The idea that Harris is the more mainstream candidate could hurt Trump in a place like Pennsylvania, where the undecided voters tend to be very moderate. Pennsylvania is still a place where the moderate Republican and Democratic voters both exist.
Trump is trying to define Harris as extreme because if those Pennsylvania moderates don’t break for the ex-president, he is going to need a superior turnout of his rural white base to have any chance of winning the state.
The polls overall show Harris leading in Michigan and Wisconsin and tied in Pennsylvania. Democrats need to run like they are behind because this election is close, and any one of a number of factors over the next two months could be enough to tip the scales toward either of the two candidates.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
