Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has taken a narrow lead against Republican nominee Donald Trump, a new Wall Street Journal poll released on Thursday finds. Harris had 48% support to Trump’s 47% in a head-to-head test of the two candidates, and she led by 2 points, 47% to 45%, on a ballot that included independent and third-party candidates, according to the poll, which was conducted after the Democratic National Convention. The poll marked the first time that a Democratic candidate led Trump head-to-head in any Wall Street Journal survey dating to April of last year. Trump had a 2-point advantage over Harris in the Journal’s head-to-head test in late July. About 84% of people in the survey said they know enough about Harris’s career and policy positions to have a firm opinion of her, and 49% hold a favorable view of her, equal to the share with an unfavorable view. That marks an improvement from late July, when unfavorable views outweighed positive views of Harris by 6 percentage points. About 45% view Trump favorably and 53% unfavorably, which is still better than Trump’s ratings before the mid-July assassination attempt against him, the poll found. Related articles: Donald Trump sworn in as 47th President of the United States ‘I really thought I had the best chance of beating Trump’ Congress certifies Trump’s 2024 election win US sanctions Iranian, Russian entities for election interference Voters still give Harris poor marks for handling her job as vice president—about 42% approve and 51% disapprove, essentially unchanged from before the convention. Voters also view Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, more favorably than unfavorably, 46% to 40%, while unfavorable views of Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, outweigh positive views by 10 points, 50% to 40%.
