Harris Had Stronger Debate, Polls Find, but the Race Remains Deadlocked

Kamala Harris overwhelmingly impressed voters in her debate with Donald J. Trump, a new set of polls from The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Siena College found, but she has failed so far to seize a decisive advantage in the presidential campaign.

The race is deadlocked nationally. Yet in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, Ms. Harris has a lead of four percentage points — a slight edge that is unchanged since early August. She has reassembled much of the core Democratic coalition in the state, winning the support of Black voters, younger voters and women there.

[Combined, the two polls are a bit of a puzzle, Nate Cohn writes. ]

The vice president received far stronger reviews of her debate performance last week than did Mr. Trump, with 67 percent of U.S. likely voters saying she did well compared with 40 percent for him. A majority of voters in every racial group, age bracket and education level — even white voters without a college degree, who are typically the former president’s most loyal demographic — gave her a positive review.

But even that was not enough to jostle a race that appears destined to become a battle of inches this fall, after a summer of tumult and upheaval.

Nationally, Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris are knotted at 47 percent. In Pennsylvania, Ms. Harris leads, 50 percent to 46 percent. The surveys were conducted almost entirely before the second apparent assassination attempt against Mr. Trump last Sunday.