Can Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump? Latest poll updates

Vice President Kamala Harris is making a bid for the White House with running mate Tim Walz after replacing President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket just a few months before Election Day.

But as the Democratic National Convention gets underway this week, a new poll suggests that voters are not convinced on Democratic policy approaches.

So how will Harris actually fare against Donald Trump and his vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, this November?

Harris now has a 2.9-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, though the race remains tight.

A new Morning Consult megapoll of 11,501 registered voters even has Harris +4 points ahead, at 48 percent of the vote to Trump’s 44 percent.

Yet exclusive polling from Savanta showed that voters still trust the Republican Party more to handle major policy issues like the economy, inflation, jobs, and crime.

Of the top five issues on the ballot, the Democrats only lead on healthcare, despite the fact that Harris appears to be striding ahead in the polls.

Interestingly, though, registered Republicans are not sold on some of the party’s most controversial issues; around 1 in 4 Republicans would rather place their trust in Democrats to handle climate change and culture war issues like LGBTQ+ rights.

A fresh CBS/YouGov poll (up to August 16) has Harris at a 3-point lead and shows a substantial gender divide is emerging between the two candidates, with more men supporting Trump and more women voting for Harris.

Trump’s key supporters remain male voters, the 45-64 age group, and white voters with no college education. But in the last group, Trump appears to have lost