Vice President Kamala Harris has jumped ahead in the 2024 presidential race following last week's Democratic National Convention, according to the latest polling from the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab).
In a survey released Tuesday, Harris was found to be 4 points ahead of former President Donald Trump among U.S. voters, according to the poll from PolCom Lab and Mainstreet Research USA. Out of the 929 registered voters surveyed between August 23 and 25, 47 percent backed Harris, while 43 percent of respondents said they supported Trump for president. Harris' lead is slightly outside the poll's margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
The vice president held the same lead among likely voters surveyed by PolCom Lab, where 49 percent backed Harris, compared to 45 percent supporting Trump.
The results are a significant leap for Harris, who a month ago was trailing Trump by 5 percentage points (49 percent to 44 percent), according to a PolCom Lab survey conducted in the days leading up to Harris entering the 2024 presidential race on July 21. In a separate poll conducted at the end of July, Harris and Trump were locked in a tie among U.S. voters in a head-to-head match-up at 46 percent.
Harris has specifically made inroads among self-described independent voters included in PolCom Lab's sampling. While back in July the key voter demographic was fairly split between the two candidates (45 percent Harris and 43 percent Trump), the latest survey shows Harris being backed by 48 percent of independents, while Trump is supported by 35 percent.
When reached for comment Wednesday, Trump's campaign press office directed Newsweek to a July 23 memo written by conservative pollster Tony Fabrizio, who warned about a "Harris honeymoon" in the weeks following the vice president's entrance into the race.
Tuesday's poll follows Harris' formal nomination at the DNC last week, alongside her running mate and Vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. It also comes after Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his 2024 campaign and threw his endorsement behind Trump late last week.
Kennedy's decision has not appeared to impact the momentum behind Harris' campaign for weeks, however. In a poll released Monday by Angus Reid Global, Harris was found to have a 5-point lead over Trump among registered voters (47 percent to 42 percent.)
The vice president held a similar lead in a Morning Consult poll released this week as well, where Harris maintained a four-point lead over Trump (48 percent to 44 percent). That same poll also found that voters' approval rating of Walz jumped after the DNC--in the days following the convention, 42 percent of registered voters said they hold a favorable view of the vice presidential candidate, compared to the 39 percent favorability rating Walz had before the DNC.
As of Tuesday, the vice president is leading Trump by 3.5 percentage points on average across national polls, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Update 08/28/24, 6:20 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional comment from Donald Trump's campaign press office.
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Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more
