Polls show Harris gaining ground on Trump as views brighten

US Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican rival Donald Trump by five percentage points in an NBC News poll released on Sunday. Respondents have come to see her more favourably since she emerged as the Democratic presidential candidate.

When asked about their views of Harris since she became the nominee, 48 percent of 1,000 registered voters surveyed said they were positive, compared to 32 percent in July—the most significant jump among politician ratings polled by NBC since President George W. Bush's favourability rose after the 11 September 2001 attacks.

Asked about Trump, 40 percent of those polled said they viewed him positively compared to 38 percent in July, the news network said. The poll, conducted from 13 September to 17 September, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

A separate CBS News poll also found Harris leading Trump by four percentage points, 52 percent to 48 percent, among likely voters, with a margin of error rate of plus or minus two percentage points.

The findings broadly align with other recent national polls, including those by Reuters/Ipsos, showing a close contest heading into the 5 November election.

While national surveys offer important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with a handful of battleground states likely to be decisive.

Trump, 78, is making his third consecutive bid for the White House after losing to Joe Biden in 2020, which he continues to falsely blame on widespread voter fraud while facing federal and state criminal charges over efforts to overturn the election results.

Harris, 59, is a former US senator and prosecutor now serving under Biden. She would be the first woman to serve as president in the nation's 248-year history.

"She's been able to change this from a race that was a referendum on Joe Biden to a race that is a referendum on Donald Trump," Amy Walter, publisher and editor in chief of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, told NBC's "Meet the Press".

In CBS' poll of 3,129 registered voters surveyed from 18 September to 20 September, Harris edged up two percentage points after a 50-50 split in August, shored by her performance in the 10 September debate and brightening economic news.

(Reuters)