Trump Catches Kamala in NBC Poll; Leads by 1 in ‘Expanded Ballot’

Former President Donald Trump has caught up to Vice President Kamala Harris in a new NBC poll released Sunday. Trump is tied with Harris at 48%, and leads by 47%-46% in an “expanded ballot” with third party candidates.

The poll also shows that Trump’s popularity is increasing, as Harris’s declines, with three weeks until Election Day.

From NBC:

In the new poll — which was conducted Oct. 4-8 — Harris gets support from 48% of registered voters in a head-to-head matchup, while Trump gets an identical 48%. Another 4% say they are undecided or wouldn’t vote for either option when forced to choose between those two major-party candidates.

That’s a change from September’s NBC News poll, which found Harris leading Trump by 5 points, 49%-44%, though that result was within the margin of error.

An expanded ballot including third-party candidates also shows this shift, with 47% of registered voters in the new poll picking Trump, 46% supporting Harris and a combined 7% picking other candidates or saying they’re undecided.

NBC suggests that the shift is due to Republican voters returning to Trump, and Harris’s declining popularity after a blitz of positive media coverage in the first several weeks after she formally entered the race in late July.

Harris had a net favorability of +3% in September, but that has fallen to -6% in the latest poll. Trump’s net favorability has risen from -13% in September to -8% in the October poll.

The NBC poll reflects other poll results, with the Wall Street Journal poll showing Trump leading Harris, 46%-45%, nationwide. The Journal says that the result in swing states is too close to call but currently gives Harris the edge.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.