Former President Donald Trump was handed a promising sign in a new Fox News poll on Wednesday evening, showing he remains one point ahead of Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to the national survey, Harris is one percentage point behind Trump with 49 percent of the vote compared to Trump’s 50 percent. According to Fox News, President Joe Biden also trailed Trump by one percentage point in July before dropping out of the race after a disappointing presidential debate performance.
The poll was conducted from August 9 to August 12 with a sample size of 1,105 registered voters and a margin of error of ±3 percentage points. The survey results favoring Trump fall within the margin.
In recent weeks, Harris has made significant strides in national polling, as a recent Ipsos survey taken from July 31 to August 7 shows Harris leading Trump 42 percent to 40 percent among registered voters in key swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina. This result is also within the margin of error for the survey and puts Harris in a “statistical dead heat” with Trump.
Newsweek has reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email on Wednesday night.
According to the Fox News poll, Trump’s “best groups” of voters include men, white men without a college degree, white evangelical Christians and rural voters. Harris’ top demographics include women, Black voters, college graduates and people under age 30.
Harris leads Trump in union households, according to the new poll, by 10 percent, while Trump leads Harris with voters who have served in the military by 22 percent. When asked about the candidates’ likability, Harris edges Trump, 48 percent to 47 percent.
In the poll’s question on likability of the vice presidential candidates, Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz leads Republican Ohio Senator JD Vance, 41 percent to 38 percent.
When asked about current polling, Florida political pollster Kevin Wagner told Newsweek via text: “I think you are seeing the consolidation of the Democratic base which is rallying around Kamala Harris. The current electorate generally reflects the state of American politics, which is close to evenly divided.”
Wagner concluded, “So most of the polls will likely have the race within a few points. In short, the election is likely to be tight, and will be about turnout, not persuasion.”
Trump and Harris have been verbally sparring in recent weeks. The former president is facing heat for mispronouncing Kamala’s first name and misspelling it as “Kamabla.” Trump has also publicly questioned Harris’ intelligence and said “she happened to turn Black.”
Harris has called out Trump for being “low energy” on the campaign trail and mocked the size of his rallies. The vice president has also jumped on the trend of labeling the Trump-Vance ticket as “weird.”