By The race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is too close to call in the aftermath of President Biden’s decision to drop out.
Trump garnered the support of 49% of voters compared to 47% who prefer Harris, according to the results of a new Quinnipiac University poll released Monday.
The former president takes a slightly larger lead in a hypothetical six-way race that includes other candidates such as independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with Trump coming in as the preference of 45% of voters and Harris garnering the support of 41%. Kennedy Jr. received the most support of independent or third party candidates, coming in with the support of 6% of voters, the poll found.
‘The dramatic reset at the top of the Democratic ticket does little to move the race as Vice President Harris enters the fray with numbers similar to President Biden,’ Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a news release on the poll’s findings.
The poll is one of the first to be released since Biden’s decision to drop out of the race Sunday, which the president said was ‘in the best interest of my party and the country.’
Pressure on the president to drop out of the race among his fellow Democrats had continued to intensify in the weeks after a disastrous debate performance left many questioning his ability to defeat Trump in November.
Biden was quick to endorse Harris in the minutes after announcing his decision on X, noting in a subsequent post that his ‘very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President.’
‘And it’s been the best decision I’ve made,’ Biden continued. ‘Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.’
Harris will now look to solidify support for her candidacy ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month and take on Trump in November.
For his part, the poll found that Trump enjoys his best approval rating in the history of the poll, with 46% of respondents expressing a favorable view of the former president and 49% expressing an unfavorable view. The Quinnipiac University poll first began asking registered voters for their feelings about Trump in May 2015.
The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,257 registered voters nationwide between July 19-21 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.