A recent Fox News poll shows that despite the early lead that Harris enjoyed after initially replacing Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket, she’s now neck-and-neck with Trump. The Democrats face an uphill battle in securing the votes that helped propel Biden to victory in 2020. The decline in support among Black and Hispanic voters is particularly alarming for Party insiders, given their historical importance to the Democratic coalition. Harris is now polling at 45% with Trump just one percentage point behind her.
Fox News reports:
In August, the same poll found that Harris was ahead of Trump 48% to 43% on the heels of the Democratic National Convention. The new survey released Monday questioned 1,000 likely voters by landline and cell phone from Oct. 14-18. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Harris has fallen back in support among Latino and Black voters in the seven weeks between surveys. The new poll found Latino voters now back Trump by 49% to 38%. Black voters prefer Harris by 72% to 17%, but that 55-point edge is significantly less than the advantage Democrats traditionally enjoy.
Harris has made multiple attempts to court these voters, though execution leaves much to be desired, having often been perceived as clumsy or insincere. In one noteworthy backfire, Harris posted a clip to her X account, in which she claimed to have prepared collard greens in a bathtub. The video was widely mocked online, with many interpreting it as a desperate attempt to connect with Black voters through cultural stereotypes. Critics point out that such antics do little to address the real issues facing these communities.
Moreover, she’s made a habit of putting on different accents during her public appearances that reflect the dominant audience. At rallies in predominantly black cities, Harris has altered her speaking style, adopting Black Southern inflection that she hasn’t used throughout the vast majority of her political career. This has led to accusations that her attempts to align herself with Black culture are more about optics than substance. During a Univision town hall in front of a primarily Spanish-speaking audience, she adopted a pronounced Hispanic accent that puzzled many viewers.
With Trump’s popularity continuing to rise among these groups, the Republican Party is eager to capitalize on the Democrats’ missteps. Many Black and Hispanic voters are increasingly looking for alternatives to the traditional Democratic messaging, signaling a potential shift in the political landscape that could reshape the electoral map in 2024.
While most voters report trusting Trump more on the economy in general, some still have yet to decide who they believe is right on more specific policy points.
Fox News continues:
In a separate poll conducted across seven battleground states, 47% of respondents said they would definitely or probably back Harris, while 47% said they would definitely or probably support Trump. According to the Washington Post-Schar School survey, 49% of likely voters support Harris, while 48% support Trump.
According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (AP-NORC) poll released on Monday, most registered voters are divided on whether Trump or Harris are better equipped to handle specific economic issues, including unemployment, the cost of groceries and housing, or tariffs.
