More Americans trust Harris to handle economy - first time in a year a Democrat has led in the key issue

A new survey from the Financial Times and the University of Michigan shows Vice President Kamala Harris eating away at one of Donald Trump’s key political advantages.

For months,voters have indicated in numerous surveys that they trusted Republicans—and Trump—more on the economy. A wide range of explanations was given for this, but much of it ties back to the sharp rise in consumer prices and other monumental shifts in the economy that occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine, which occurred in early 2022, also caused a sharp spike in global energy prices, which has had a subsequent ripple effect across other sectors of consumer goods and services.

President Joe Biden has languished under the political consequences of these back-to-back economic body blows throughout his presidency, and in repeated polls of the 2024 election trailed Trump on trust ratings for economic issues including inflation.

But his vice president, Harris, may not be weighed down by that same political baggage. The Financial Times survey released Sunday found Harris making a sharp improvement over Biden’s economic trust numbers.

Biden had languished around 35 percent of the vote on who voters trust to handle the economy, while Trump sat at 41 percent. However, Biden dropped out of the race, and now, voters say they trust Harris at 42 percent, just beating the number of those who say they would trust Trump.

The vice president now leads her opponent, by a hair, making it the first time the Democratic candidate has led the Republican on this subject this year.

Pointedly, the surge in Harris’s numbers come as Trump’s have remained steady now in the tracking poll for almost the entire year, varying little and