This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 23 episode of “Deadline: White House.”
With just over six weeks until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is gaining ground. According to a new NBC News poll, Harris has a 5-point lead over former President Donald Trump among registered voters, 49% to 44%. Although that number is still within the poll’s margin of error, it should be encouraging to the Harris campaign.
Her campaign will be glad to see she’s made progress with voters on key issues, like the economy. While Trump still holds an advantage on that metric, his lead is smaller than it was when President Joe Biden was still in the race. Harris’ favorability has also ticked up, jumping 16 points since July.
But having said that, the truth is, national polls don’t matter. Battleground state polls matter. After NBC News released those national numbers, The New York Times and Siena College put out a poll that showed Trump ahead in Arizona and Georgia. According to the same poll, in North Carolina, the two are essentially tied. If you look at polls in the other battleground states — Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — these are all margin-of-error races.
In the closing weeks of this campaign, Harris needs her supporters to stay engaged and enthusiastic. The campaign wants those supporters to call their friends in battleground states and do whatever they can to help, volunteering to make sure those registered voters become likely voters on Harris’ side of the equation. But time is quickly running out. Democrats have six weeks to go. They’ve got to get this done.
Claire McCaskill
Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri. She is currently an MSNBC and NBC News political analyst.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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