Polling suggests Harris might be able to outperform Biden against Trump among these groups

Polling conducted before Biden’s announcement provides some early indications of how a Harris for President campaign might try to improve on his standing in the race.

It’s just one day after President Joe Biden announced that he would end his reelection campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee taking on former President Donald Trump in this year’s presidential race. That’s far too soon for polling to capture the dynamics of a fast-evolving campaign, but polling conducted before Biden’s announcement provides some early indications of how a Harris for President campaign might try to improve on Biden’s standing in the race. CNN’s polling in late June tested Biden’s support against Trump in the wake of the presidential debate, and it also looked at how Harris would fare in a hypothetical matchup with the former president. Overall, Harris held 45% support to Trump’s 47% among registered voters nationwide, a result with no clear leader, within the poll’s margin of sampling error. Biden trailed Trump by 6 points in the same poll. Harris outperformed Biden against Trump among women – notably among women of color and suburban women – and political independents, and she held an advantage over Trump among voters who said they weren’t fully locked in to their presidential choices. The data also suggests Harris fared somewhat better than Biden among younger voters, a particular point of concern for Democrats during the campaign so far. Here’s a look at some of the key numbers: Women: Harris held the support of 50% of women registered voters to Trump’s 43%, while Biden only held the support of 44% of women to Trump’s 47%. Among suburban women, a key segment of Biden’s coalition in 2020, Harris held 55% support to Trump’s 39%, while Biden stood at 49% to Trump’s 43%. Men broke for Trump by about 10 points regardless of whether the Democrat was Biden or Harris.