The 2024 presidential race continues to tighten as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump enter the critical last few weeks before election day.
The latest national poll, produced by Emerson College Polling, shows Harris was the choice of 49% of registered voters compared to 48% who said they’d vote for Trump. One percent said they’d vote for someone other than the major party nominee on the ballot at 2% are undecided. When undecided voters were asked which candidate they lean toward, Harris support grew to 50% and Trump’s to 49%, pollsters said.
READ MORE: Georgia is setting early voting records, and Trump supports it. Why Alabama does not
The latest numbers show a small decline for Harris, who was the pick of 50% of voters earlier in October while Trump is holding steady and has increased support by 1 percentage point from September.
Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said there are clear divides in the groups backing each candidate.
“Women and male voters break in near opposite directions: men for Trump, 56% to 42%, and women for Harris, 55% to 41%” Kimball said in a statement. “Hispanic voters break for Harris, 61% to 35% and Black voters 81% to 12%, while white voters break for Trump 60% to 38%.”
A vast majority of voters – 80% – made the decision on which candidate they would support more than a month ago, while 11% made their minds up last month, 6% made their minds up last week and 3% remained undecided.
“Voters who made their decision on who to support over a month ago break for Trump, 52% to 48%, while voters who made up their mind in the last month or week break for Harris, 60% to 36%,” Kimball said. “The three percent of voters who said they could still change their mind currently favor Harris, 48% to 43%.”
Voters (38%) said the economy was the most important issue facing the country, followed by immigration (16%), threats to democracy (13%), abortion access (9%), healthcare (7%), affordable housing (6%) and crime (4%).
The Emerson College Polling national survey was conducted Oct. 14-16 with a margin of plus/minus 3 percentage points.
