Harris, Walz Plan Post-Debate Tour of Swing States in Tight Race

(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to still-tight battleground states after Tuesday’s debate with Donald Trump, as a poll showed the former president ahead nationally and many voters saying they need to know more about Harris. 

Trump led Harris by 48% to 47% in a New York Times-Siena College poll published Sunday. While within the margin of error, the result suggests that Harris’ month-long rise in the polls may have stalled and Trump’s support remains resilient. 

Most polls since Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in July have given her an edge over Trump. 

“The simple truth is that when a survey reflects the actual electorate, President Trump is in the lead,” the former president’s chief campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio wrote in a memo on Sunday.

Brian Fallon, Harris’ senior adviser for communication, said in a social-media post that Harris “has considered herself the underdog” since she became in the Democratic nominee. 

“She continues to campaign with that mentality,” he added. There’s “a lot of work” ahead until Election Day, he said. 

While only about one in 10 in the poll of registered voters said they need to learn more about Trump, about a third — 31% — said the same about Harris.

Harris will travel on Thursday to North Carolina, which Trump won in 2016 and 2020, and to Pennsylvania on Friday. Her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will head to the Midwestern states of Michigan and Wisconsin, while his wife Gwen travels to Georgia, New Hampshire and Maine.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is slated to make stops in Nevada, Arizona and Florida. Trump, who lives in Florida, is considered the favorite there but an abortion-rights ballot initiative has some Democrats feeling bullish about their chances in the Southern state, including in a key Senate race. Arizona also has an abortion-rights initiative this year.

The Harris campaign will air a new ad in seven swing states along with Nebraska, where Democrats are fighting for a single electoral college vote in the mostly Republican stronghold. The spot focuses on the economy, in particular Harris’ proposals to ban corporate price-gouging in grocery stores, to cap the cost of prescription drugs and to address the nationwide housing shortage.

“It’s time to turn a page on the divisiveness. It’s time to bring our country together, chart a new way forward,” Harris told reporters in Pennsylvania on Saturday, when asked about her main message to Trump at the debate. 

More than 60% in the New York Times poll said the next president should represent “major change” from Biden. Only 25% said that Harris reflects that change, while 53% associated it with Trump. 

The Sept. 3-6 poll of 1,695 registered voters has a margin of error of as many as 2.8 percentage points.

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