Republican pollster Frank Luntz suggested that disgraced former President Donald Trump is to blame for his precipitous drop in the polls in the race against Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris inherited a race that Biden was on track to lose decisively, polls suggested. She now leads former President Trump in most national polls and is at least tied with the Republican in recent surveys of major swing states from Arizona to Pennsylvania.
Polls have shown Harris erasing Trump’s polling lead and generating significant enthusiasm after replacing President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
The weeks since Biden dropped from the race and endorsed Harris has seen a quick turn-around in polls.
Harris took the lead over Trump in the national polling average kept by Decision Desk HQ/The Hill, showing the new Democratic presidential candidate has quickly seen polls move in her favor. Harris has a 1.4% lead based on 114 polls.
Her lead comes amid broader evidence that the newly-minted Democratic presidential nominee and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. are moving ahead of the Republican ticket.
A poll released from The New York Times/Siena College gave Harris 4-point leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three states that are part of the “blue wall” that swung the election to Trump in 2016 before flipping back for Biden in 2020.
All those results were within the margin of error but they marked notable improvements from Biden’s flagging numbers.
Polling data is not entirely reliable since Americans do not elect the candidate with the most votes.
To win the presidency, a candidate must secure 270 of the 538 available electoral votes, distributed among the 50 states and the District of Columbia according to population.
Nebraska and Maine have unique systems: they award two electoral votes to the statewide popular vote winner and distribute the remaining votes according to the winners in each congressional district.
All others have a winner take all system, so the victory is awarded based on about than 54 individual contests.
Only one of the last three Republican presidential candidates who captured the White House actually received a majority of the popular votes.
Trump’s recent public appearances were disastrous because he made controversial comments after his allies pleaded with him to focus on policy.
At the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the former president attacked Harris for her biracial heritage and he insulted the audience.
A campaign rally in Atlanta was overshadowed by his personal attacks on Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
At a press conference last week, Trump spewed a series of utterly ridiculous lies as he bragged about the size of the crowd he attracted before his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
During the interview with Musk, Trump’s often rambling responses to questions gave Democrats plenty of soundbites they are likely to use against the former president.
Trump said that he would try to eliminate the federal Department of Education and allow states to operate their own schools, echoing a proposal from Project 2025, an extremely right-wing blueprint for a potential Republican presidency.
“Not every state will do great,” Trump said. “Of the 50, I would bet that 35 would do great.”
Trump also made the ludicrous claim tgat there are enemies “within” the United States who are more dangerous than Russia or China.
Trump has rejected the legitimacy of climate science but Musk unsuccessfully attempted to wrestle him into acknowledging the dangers of global warming.
Musk, a billionaire who immigrated from South Africa said he thinks legal immigration is good and that most of those who cross the border illegally are also good people, but Trump has promised the largest deportation operation in the country’s history if he is elected.
He falsely claimed that other nations are sending individuals from their prisons and mental institutions to the southern border and that some people entering the U.S. speak languages nobody has heard of.
Such assinine remarks are unworthy of adults let alone the most powerful political leader in the world but despite the frantic efforts of his campaign advisors, Trump has proven himself incapable of controlling his mouth.
The consequences of facing a bright, positive and experienced woman are becoming increasingly evident as the polls show Trump’s campaign in decline but there are still anout a dozen weeks before the election and anything can happen.