Kamala Harris pulls even with Donald Trump in swing states

Presidential candidates neck and neck in battleground areas with vote result in Georgia appearing key to outcome of November election

Kamala Harris is pulling even with Donald Trump in the battleground states that will probably decide the outcome of the 2024 US election, new polling shows.
A new poll by Bloomberg/Morning Consult put the 59-year-old vice-president at an average of 48 per cent in seven swing states with Trump on 47 per cent, effectively a statistical tie but nevertheless evidence of the remarkable bounce Democrats have enjoyed since Joe Biden announced he was standing aside 10 days ago.
Ms Harris leads in Arizona with 49 per cent to Trump’s 47 per cent, in Michigan by 53 per cent to 42 per cent, in Nevada by 47 per cent to 45 per cent, and in Wisconsin by 49 per cent to 47 per cent.
The polls put her four points behind the 78-year-old former president in Pennsylvania and two points behind him in North Carolina. Georgia is a dead heat.
Prior to Mr Biden’s departure from the race, Trump had, with some variation, been leading in all the battleground states.
This new poll found that if the outcome of the poll were replicated on election day, the candidate who won Georgia would be elected president.
The so-called Peach State, with its 16 electoral college votes, is a major focus for both parties. Trump won the state handily in 2016, but in 2020 Mr Biden won it back by fewer than 12,000 votes, the first Democrat to do so since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Underscoring the way Georgia is now back in play for Democrats, earlier this week Ms Harris held an energetic rally in Atlanta. Trump is due to hold his own event with JD Vance, his running mate, at the same venue on Saturday.
At the rally, Ms Harris directly challenged Trump to hold a debate. After Mr Biden had a disastrous debate performance in June against Trump, an event that marked the beginning of the end of the president’s bid for re-election, it had been unclear whether there would be a second event.
Trump has said he would be willing to debate Ms Harris, but Democrats accuse him of refusing to fix a time and place.
“So he won’t debate me, but he and his running mate have a lot to say about me,” she said. “The momentum in this race is shifting and there are signs that Donald Trump is feeling it – you may have noticed.
“Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face,” Ms Harris said.
On Wednesday, the Republicans hit back, accusing Ms Harris of being too scared to sit for a media interview.
“It has been 10 days since Kamala’s coup to force Crooked Joe Biden off the ballot, but she hasn’t done a single interview nor press conference,” Jake Schneider, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. “The only logical conclusion is that she’s terrified.”
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Also on Wednesday, more than 100 venture capitalists including Mark Cuban, the entrepreneur, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, said they would be throwing their support behind Ms Harris.
“We spend our days looking for, investing in and supporting entrepreneurs who are building the future,” the group said. “We are pro-business, pro-American dream, pro-entrepreneurship, and pro-technological progress.”