Harris builds 13-point lead over Trump with women: Poll

Vice President Harris boasts a 13-point lead over former President Trump among women voters in a new poll, a notable edge with a major voting bloc that could be critical for her ticket in November. 

An Economist/YouGov poll taken this week found 51 percent of women who are registered voters said they support Harris, while 38 percent backed her Republican rival. On the other hand, Trump, who has struggled with women voters, saw a 7-point lead among men. 

After Trump took office in 2016, women voters boosted the “blue wave” of Democratic wins during the 2018 midterms. The bloc was again galvanized after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending federal protections for abortion, and women voters are now seen as powering Harris’s successful presidential campaign roll-out. 

The new polling also showed Harris has an overall 3-point lead in the presidential race, with 46 percent to Trump’s 43 percent among registered voters nationwide. She’s held a consistent edge over the past few weeks as she rides the momentum of the ticket shake-up, according to the pollster, a shift from when President Biden was trailing Trump just before his historic exit from the race. 

Seven in 10 Democrats said they’re extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for president this year, compared to 6 in 10 Republicans who said the same. That’s a reversal from July, when more Republicans than Democrats reported feeling enthusiastic about casting their ballots.

The vice president also has a stronger net favorability — meaning her favorability rating minus her unfavorability score — of negative 1 point, while Trump sits at negative 10 points.

Harris, who has already made history as the first woman to hold the vice presidential post, would be the first female president if elected in November. The latest polling comes amid the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where the party is working to rev up Democratic women to turn out in November. 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for the presidency by a major party, urged the audience at the convention this week to break the glass ceiling with support for the Harris-Walz bid. 

The poll surveyed 1,271 registered voters from Aug. 17-20 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points for that group.