Kamala Harris has 44% of voting intentions and Donald Trump, 42%.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has opened up a two percentage point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden dropped out of his re-election campaign, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Tuesday (23/07).
The poll, conducted on Monday and Tuesday, comes after Donald Trump formally agreed to his party’s nomination and Biden’s announcement that he was leaving the race.
Kamala Harris has 44% of the voter’s intentions, while Donald Trump has 42%, the national poll showed . The difference is within the margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Kamala was tied with Trump in previous poll
Harris and Trump were tied with 44% of the vote in a poll conducted July 15-16. In an earlier poll conducted July 1-2, Trump led by one percentage point, both within the same margin of error.
The latest poll showed that 56 percent of registered voters believe Harris is “mentally capable of handling challenges,” compared with 49 percent who said the same about Trump, 78.
Only 22% of voters rated Biden that way.
The survey, conducted online, surveyed 1,241 U.S. adults, including 1,018 registered voters.
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Kamala Harris already has enough delegates to be a candidate
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday secured the support of the number of Democratic Party delegates needed to be named the party ‘s candidate for the White House at the convention in August, according to campaign officials who spoke to Reuters .
In the United States, political parties select their presidential candidates through an indirect vote: voters participate in state primaries, and each state sends a certain number of delegates to the national convention . It is these delegates who, armed with the results of the primaries in their states, officially select the party’s candidate.
Therefore, Kamala’s candidacy can only be made official at this event, and the delegates can change their minds until then. The vast majority of them were elected in the party primaries to support Joe Biden and, with the president’s withdrawal, they are free to choose whoever they want.
Kamala shows strength
Still, the fact that Kamala has already garnered the informal support of a simple majority of delegates (2,214 of about 4,000 , according to an informal count by the Associated Press) is a sign of the vice president’s strength, and should prevent the emergence of opponents who want to dispute the nomination with her – prominent governors, such as Gretchen Whitmer, of Michigan, and JB Pritzker, of Illinois, have already said they will not seek the nomination.
Otherwise, it would be necessary to hold an open convention , where each candidate seeks support among the delegates during the event, but the Democrats seem to want to avoid the risks that such a clash would bring.
The chairman of the party’s national committee , Jaime Harrison, said on Monday that the party will choose the new presidential candidate by August 7, via online voting, bringing forward the decision and confirming that there should be no room for open disputes.
Kamala had already consolidated herself as Biden’s successor on Monday, winning support from strong names in the Democratic Party, such as former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.
The mood of triumph was visible in her first campaign speech , delivered early Monday evening at the location that until last Sunday (21) was the headquarters of the Biden-Harris campaign. “The baton is in our hands,” said Kamala, who was introduced to the sound of “Freedom” by Beyoncé.