Kamala Harris has pulled ahead of Donald Trump in a national poll taken in the two days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
The Vice President has taken the nationwide lead over her Republican rival after securing enough delegates to be named the Democratic candidate at the party’s convention in Chicago next month.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris leading Trump by 2 percent in a head-to-head general election matchup as she hits the campaign in place of the ailing 81-year-old Biden.
It follows a slew of other polls taken in the aftermath of Biden putting a stop to his campaign.
Trump was leading Harris by tight margins in polls taken when speculation swirled that Biden wouldn’t be on the ticket.
Several polls taken amidst President Joe Biden dropping his reelection bid show Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump in the 2024 race – but one released on Tuesday finally showed the VP pulling ahead of the former president
But as Harris hits the campaign trail, the momentum appears to have shifted in her favor.
In a July 1-2 poll taken by the same service with the same margin of error, Trump held a one percent lead over Harris and in a July 15-16 poll they were tied at 44 percent.
Now that Harris is running for president instead of Biden, her odds flipped as she leads Trump 44 percent to 42 percent.
When independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was added into the mix of the poll, Harris’ advantage widened to four points – 42 percent to 38 percent.
The first series of national polls released after Harris entered the race had Trump beating the vice president.
A Morning Consult poll taken the day of, and immediately after Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, has Trump ahead of Harris 47 percent to 45 percent.
Two other polls taken between Friday and Sunday had Trump ahead by up to 9 percentage points – a gap larger than he was leading Biden by.
The dramatic poll results were reflected in betting markets which made the Republican the clear favorite to win the election in November.
Kamala Harris made her first solo presidential campaign remarks in Wisconsin on Tuesday after becoming the presumed Democratic nominee
The Morning Consult poll also found 65 percent of Democrats support Harris replacing Biden at the top the party’s ticket.
It showed 63 percent of Americans think Biden should serve out the remainder of his term, while 30 percent said he should resign now.
Biden dropped out four days after he was pulled from the campaign trail during a swing in Nevada after he received a positive COVID-19 test.
He has been isolating at his $3.4 million beach house in Delaware.
White House Physician Kevin O’Connor has released daily updates on the president’s condition, but he has not been seen publicly since the diagnosis on Wednesday.
Some Republicans are demanding ‘proof of life’ from the President.
Biden is scheduled to return to Washington, D.C. from Delaware on Tuesday afternoon. It would be the first time he has emerged in six days.
Just moments after posting his one-page letter to X on Sunday, announcing he was stepping aside, Biden sent a follow-up tweet that backed his vice president to take over his campaign.
On Monday, Harris earned the support of enough delegates to get the nomination at the Democratic National Convention next month.
Quinnipiac University released a poll the day after Biden dropped out, which was taken Friday through Sunday, and had Trump ahead in a matchup with Harris by 2 percent.
But when registered voters were asked to also consider other candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein, Trump was in the lead by 4 points with 45 percent over second-place Harris with 41 percent.
Trump (pictured at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday) is ahead of Harris by at least 2 points and up to 9 percent
The largest gap between the vice president and former president was 9 percent in a Forbes/HarrisX poll, which like the Quinnipiac poll was conducted two days before, and the day of, Biden dropping out on Sunday.
Trump earned 50 percent in that survey compared to Harris’ 41 percent.
Another poll by Point Politics/SoCal Research, taken on the day Biden stepped aside, found 51 percent of voters backing Trump and 43 percent Harris.
The vice president has seen a fundraising boom. In the seven hours after Biden dropped out of the race Democratic fundraising surged by a record $46.4 million.