Honeymoon period over for Harris? Trump leads among likely voters in fresh poll

Former US president Donald Trump is leading Democrat rival, Kamala Harris, in the homestretch of the presidential campaign, a national poll of likely voters by The New York Times and Siena College has shown.

Trump is leading Harrisby a 48–47 margin, which puts him right back where he was when President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.

In the immediate aftermath of Biden calling it quits, Harris received a major fillip to her campaign as Trump failed to consolidate his position. However, the poll suggests that despite the bottlenecks, Trump's support remains 'remarkably resilient'.

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If the poll figures translateinto reality, it would represent a higher share of votes for Trump than hereceived at the ballot box in either 2016 or 2020.

The poll results come a couple of days before the first and potentially only televised debate between Trump and Harris. Tuesday (Sep 10) night could potentially be the make-or-break opportunity for Harris as 28 per cent of likely voters said they still need to know more about the vice president, compared to nine per cent wanting to know more about Trump.

With the margins wafer thin in the swing states, a poor performance in the debate, akin to Biden's disastrous showing in June, could potentially allow Trump to run away with the contest.

The poll suggests that Harris is currentlyahead in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and tied in four other swing states -- Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona.

Watch |US Election 2024: Polls show Kamala Harris with one to five-point lead over Donald Trump

Trump pollsters predicted Harris' rise and fall

Tony Fabrizio and Travis Tunis - two of Trump's pollsters had predicted last month that Harris's campaign was in the honeymoon period which would soon come to end.

“Post-DNC we will likely see another small (albeit temporary) bounce for Harris in the public polls. Post-Convention bounces are a phenomenon that happens after most party conventions,” the memo by thepollsters stated.

“So don’t be surprised to see Harris get a temporary 2 to 3 point bump,” it added.

The pollsters urged the Trump supporters to keep their 'eye on the ball', referring to the states where the Republican leader had a greater chance of winning.

“The other thing to keep in mind is that while the media is going to focus on the national polls, we need to keep our eye on the ball – that is the polling in our target states. Our goal is to get to 270 votes and winning these states is how we do it.”

(With inputs from agencies)