Harris' dominant debate performance pays off on the numbers, as first post-debate poll shows her taking a six-point lead over Trump, while pulling ahead in PA

 

Kamala Harris takes six-point lead over Trump (Getty)

Kamala Harris has taken a six-point lead over Donald Trump in new polling, according to a report at Newsweek.  Under the headline "Kamala Harris Hits Record Polling Lead Over Donald Trump," Theo Burman writes:

Kamala Harris has increased her polling lead over Donald Trump to record highs, according to the latest Morning Consult poll.

 The vice president is currently 6 percentage points ahead among likely voters, 51 percent to Trump's 45 percent, which is double the advantage she held before their debate on ABC last week.

The polling also showed that Harris had a strong lead with independent voters, with 47 percent saying they were planning to vote for her in November. 41 percent said the same about Trump with a further 6 percent undecided about the decision, and another 6 percent voting for a third-party candidate. Independent voters are expected to be key to winning crucial battleground states in November's election.

Congressional Democrats also whittled away at Republican advantages on key issues, lowering the GOP's lead on immigration from 13 points to 7, and their lead on national security from 8 points to just 3, according to the poll. Both of these issues, along with the economy, have been the largest talking points the Trump campaign has focused on across the election so far.

According to Newsweek's polling tracker, Harris maintains a 3-point lead nationally ahead of Trump, while also leading slightly in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Three recent polls found Trump to be slightly ahead in Arizona, while most recent polls have put Georgia and North Carolina as toss-ups, with many results within the margin of error.

Morning Consult's numbers are built on "thousands of daily surveys" as well as consistent tracking of the top issues in the electoral cycle and how much media coverage they receive.

The news comes as Trump faces tougher odds across several polls and forecast models in the wake of some strong numbers for Harris. The latest version of the FiveThirtyEight election forecast, one of the most-viewed models this election, gave Trump a record-low chance of winning the Electoral College at just 39 percent.

Previously, Trump had been performing close to the margin of error between the two candidates. When the model first relaunched following the replacement of President Joe Biden, it gave Trump a 41 percent chance of winning, which was rising steadily before the ABC debate on September 10.

The Harris campaign also received positive polling from Pennsylvania, widely considered to be the most significant swing state in this election, on Monday, with a poll that put the Democrat ahead by three points, with 48.6 percent to Trump's 45.6 percent.