Harris holds thin lead over Trump in poll

WASHINGTON — US Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris held a marginal 3-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump — 45 percent to 42 percent — as the two stayed locked in a tight race to win the Nov 5 presidential election, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds.

While the gap between the two remained steady compared with a poll conducted a week earlier, the new one, which closed on Sunday, gave signs that voters, particularly Democrats, might be more enthused about this year's election than they were ahead of the November 2020 presidential election when Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump.

Some 78 percent of registered voters in the three-day poll, including 86 percent of Democrats and 81 percent of Republicans, said they were "completely certain" they would cast a ballot in the presidential election. The share of sure-to-vote respondents was up from 74 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted in 2020.

The poll had a margin of error of about 4 percentage points.

Harris entered the race in July after Biden ended his reelection effort following a poor debate performance against Trump in June. Trump, at the time, was widely seen as the front-runner, partly based on his perceived strength on the economy after several years of high inflation under Biden.

More recently, Harris appears to be drawing strength from voters picking her as the better candidate for healthcare policy and for handling political extremism, though voters also rate the US economy as the top issue in the election and said Trump was the better economic steward, according to the new poll.

Harris led Trump by 5 points when voters were asked to pick who was better for handling political extremism and threats to democracy. She led him by 14 points on healthcare policy.

Trump led Harris 45 percent to 40 percent when voters were asked who was the better candidate for the "economy, unemployment and jobs", the category of national priorities that 26 percent of poll respondents picked as the biggest problem facing the nation, compared with 23 percent who picked political extremism and 3 percent who said healthcare.

Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk gave about $75 million to his pro-Trump spending group in three months, federal disclosures showed on Tuesday.

Musk, who has said he has voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past, has taken a sharp turn to the right this election. He endorsed Trump in July and appeared with him at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month.

Agencies Via Xinhua