Poll: Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in all seven swing states

Vice President Kamala Harris is narrowly leading Republican Donald Trump in all seven key states, according to a new poll.

An Ipsos poll conducted July 31-Aug. 7 found the Democratic presidential nominee leading Trump 42 percent to 40 percent among registered voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin less than three months before Election Day. The poll did not break down results by state.

The race remains close, however, as Harris’ lead is within the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

Recent polls have shown Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party’s presidential ticket, holding a lead over Trump.

She entered the 2024 race on July 21 after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed her. Biden dropped out after her disastrous performance in a debate in late June magnified concerns about the 81-year-old’s age and ability to beat Trump in November.

The Trump and Harris campaigns have been contacted for comment by email.

Trump’s team had previously pointed to a memo from campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio that predicted Harris’ lead in the polls would be temporary.

In the memo, Fabrizio said the “Harris honeymoon” would be “a manifestation of the massive media coverage Harris is receiving.” Democrats and the media “will try to tout these polls as proof that the race has changed,” Fabrizio wrote. “But the fundamentals of the race remain the same.”

The Ipsos poll also found that inflation and immigration remain the most important issues for residents in the battleground states.

More than half (52 percent) of respondents said inflation was the top problem facing the country, while 32 percent said it was immigration. Political extremism and polarization were seen as important by 24 percent of respondents, followed by crime or gun violence (21 percent), health care (18 percent) and housing costs or availability (17 percent).

Residents in key swing states prefer Trump on immigration (45 percent to Harris’s 31 percent), the economy (42 percent to 35 percent) and war and foreign conflict (42 percent to 33 percent). However, more prefer Harris on health care (39 percent to Trump’s 30 percent). The poll found that Americans equally preferred Trump and Harris when it came to political extremism or threats to democracy.

The poll also found that Harris was viewed by more residents in key swing states as “smart,” “moral” and someone who “earned her position.”

Trump, on the other hand, was more likely to be seen as “weird,” a line of attack Democrats have been using against Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance. Trump was also more likely to be seen as “brave” and “patriotic,” according to the poll.