Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump by 3 points head to head nationally, four weeks away from Election Day, according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll released Tuesday.
Harris leads Trump 49% to 46%, with 5% refusing to answer or responding "don't know."
It's the first time Harris has led in the poll since becoming the Democrat nominee in July, according to the Times. Trump and Harris were tied at 47% each in the NYT/Siena survey in mid-September.
Among independents, however, Trump leads Harris 48% to 47%, according to the poll results. Harris, meanwhile, pulls in 9% of those surveyed identifying as Republican.
Harris also owns a 3-point lead over Trump in a multicandidate field, 47% to 44%, according to the survey. The NYT/Siena poll is in line with the RealClearPolitics national polling average, which shows Harris with a 2-point lead on Tuesday.
In the NYT/Siena poll, Trump leads Harris on the issue of the economy, the No. 1 issue among those surveyed.
Nearly half of those surveyed (47%) said the country's current economic conditions are "poor," and nearly one-third (28%) said the economy was their No. 1 issue in next month's election, more than double the second-biggest issue, abortion (14%), according to the poll.
To that end, Trump leads Harris 48% to 46% as the candidate who would "do a better job of handling the issue you think is most important," according to the survey.
Despite a 3½-year run as vice president in the Biden administration, Harris leads Trump on a question of being the change candidate, 46% to 44%, according to the survey. However, Trump leads Harris 48% to 45% on the question of being a "strong leader."
The New York Times/Siena College nationwide poll of 3,385 likely voters was conducted from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.4 percentage points.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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