Harris builds lead over Trump; voters see her as debate winner, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows

[September 13, 2024]  By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Democratic U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47% to 42% in the race to win the Nov. 5 presidential election, increasing her advantage after a debate against the former president that voters largely think she won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday.

The two-day poll showed Harris with a five percentage point lead among registered voters, just above the four-point advantage she had over Trump in an Aug. 21-28 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Among voters who said they had heard at least something about Tuesday's debate, 53% said Harris won and 24% said Trump won, with the rest saying neither had or not answering. Some 52% of those familiar with the debate said Trump stumbled and didn't appear sharp, while 21% said that of Harris. Among Republican voters, one in five said Trump didn't appear sharp.

Harris, 59, put Trump, 78, on the defensive in a combative presidential debate with a stream of attacks on his fitness for office and his myriad legal woes, highlighting Trump's felony conviction on charges he falsified business records. Some 52% of voters familiar with the debate said Harris "gave the impression of having higher moral integrity," compared to 29% who said the same of Trump.

Many Republicans were also not convinced about their candidate's performance in the debate in Philadelphia. Some 53% of Republican voters in the poll said Trump won the debate, compared to 91% of Democrats who said she was the victor. Among Republicans, 31% said no one won and 14% said Harris got the better of Trump.

Ninety-one percent of registered voters in the poll said they had heard at least something of the debate and 44% said they had heard a great deal. The debate, hosted by ABC News, attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data, topping the roughly 51 million people who watched Trump debate then-candidate President Joe Biden in June.

People watch the presidential debate between Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at a watch party hosted by the New York Young Republican Club, in New York City, U.S., September 10, 2024. REUTERS/Adam Gray/File Photo

Biden's disastrous performance in that debate led to widespread calls by the 81-year-old leader's fellow Democrats for him to drop his re-election bid, which he did in July. Now Trump is the older candidate in the race, and the poll found 52% of voters consider Trump too old to work in government, compared to 7% who said the same of Harris.

Voters generally gave Harris better marks than Trump on how she carried herself. Asked which of the two appeared more dignified, 56% of people familiar with the debate picked Harris, compared to 24% who picked Trump. Forty-nine percent said Harris "seemed like someone who would listen to me and understand my concerns," compared to 18% who saw Trump that way.

The poll surveyed 1,690 U.S. adults nationwide, including 1,405 registered voters. It had a margin of error of around three percentage points for registered voters.

While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos' polls give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with a handful of battleground states likely to be decisive.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)

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