Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates

In less than 53 days, Vice President Kamala Harris will go head-to-head with Donald Trump as Americans cast their votes in the 2024 election.

Fresh polls show that Harris has seen a boost among voters, after the candidates faced offin the presidential debate in Philadelphia, the first since President Joe Biden stepped down from the Democratic ticket in July.

All polls show that Harris “won” the debate in the eyes of voters. So how will she fare against Trump in November?

Harris has a 2.8-point lead over Trump in the latest average of national polls, collated by FiveThirtyEight. On average, Harris has been marginally ahead of Trump in national polls.

However, a brand new poll — taken in the two days following Tuesday’s debate— shows that Harris has a +5 point lead over Trump among registered voters.

The nationwide poll from Ipsos and Reuters of 1,405 registered voters has Harris at 47 per cent of the vote, and Trump at 42 per cent.

This puts Harris’s margin up by 1 point compared to the same poll in late August, when Harris had 45 per cent of the vote and Trump had 41 (a 4-point margin).

The stronger lead suggests that the debate had a positive impact on public perception of Harris, which may revitalise her slowing lead.

All polls so far suggest that Harris won the debate in the eyes of voters, and a longtime Republican pollster has warned that this spells doom for Trump.

Perhaps, most significantly, half of independent voters believe Harris won the debate, according to a Reuters’ poll. This is a significant 180 from June’s Biden-Trump faceoff, when 62 per cent viewed Trump as the winner.

Meanwhile, a third (31 per cent) of Republicans said that neither candidate won the debate; compared to just 6 per cent of