Snap poll after debate reveals state of presidential race between Trump and Harris

A snap poll has revealed the state of the presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the immediate aftermath of the debate on Tuesday night.

According to a CNN flash poll conducted by SSRS, 63 percent of registered voters who tuned in to the ABC News debate believe that Harris “won” the debate.

This is nearly double (37 percent) the voters who believed that Trump was the winner.

The snap poll shows that Harris was able to make a positive impression on voters, who felt better understood by the Democrat after the debate.

Post-debate, 44 percent said Harris better understands the problems facing regular Americans today, while 40 percent backed Trump.

This is a changeup from before the debate, when 43 percent of voters felt that Trump was more in touch with their problems, compared to 39 percent for Harris.

Harris’s favorability also rose after the debate, with 45 percent saying they view her favorably compared to 39 percent before the two candidates took to the stage. However, a significant 44 percent of registered voters said they view her unfavorably in the aftermath of the debate.

By contrast, voters’ opinions of Trump were largely unchanged, with 39 percent rating him favorably and 51 percent unfavorably.

The results highlight a slight shift towards Harris compared to prior to the debate and come after an average of national polls shows Harris with a 2.8 point lead over Trump.

The vice president has been pulling away from the former president in the polls since late July, although Trump’s percentage has been creeping ever so slightly closer to his opponent’s as of last week.

Despite Harris’s growth in favorability, the issue of the economy still appears to be an obstacle for her campaign.

In the snap poll, 55 percent of voters said Trump would handle the economy better than Harris, while 35 percent said the reverse – a 20 point margin slightly wider than prior to the debate.

A significant majority of registered voters watching the debate said their voting intentions were no different than before Harris and Trump took to the stage in Philadelphia – 82 percent to be exact.

A further 14 percent said the debate made them reconsider their vote but failed to change their minds, while just 4 percent said their voting intentions had actually changed post-debate.

CNN highlighted how debate watchers who took the poll were six points likelier to be Republican-aligned than Democratic-aligned, meaning those polled were about four percentage points more GOP-leaning than all registered voters nationally.

One key figure who appears to have been influenced by the debate is Taylor Swift, who officially endorsed Harris for president only moments after the debate wrapped up.

The debate was the first – and likely only – between Harris and Trump as well as the second of the 2024 presidential election, after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, weeks after his disastrous debate with Trump in June.

Less than an hour after leaving the stage, the Harris campaign challenged Trump, who said it was his “best debate ever,” to another round.

“They want another debate because they lost,” Trump claimed to reporters in the spin room following the debate. “So, we’ll, you know, think about that.”

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