Harris holds slim lead over Trump in Virginia, Roanoke College poll finds
ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Vice President Kamala Harris holds a slight lead in Virginia over former President Donald Trump for the 2024 presidential election, the Roanoke College Poll finds.
According to Roanoke College, Harris holds a three-point lead of 47% compared to Trump’s 44% when respondents had to pick between the two candidates. When incorporating other candidates in the poll, Harris leads with 45% and Trump follows with 42%. The school states both of these findings are within the poll’s margin of error.
The Roanoke College Poll was conducted by the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research (IPOR) and consisted of 691 completed interviews from August 12 to August 16.
The poll finds that 2% of likely voters say they are undecided when faced with multiple candidates and 8% are undecided between Harris and Trump.
Roanoke College adds this is the first poll to include Harris as the Democratic candidate. According to the previous poll conducted in May, Trump and President Joe Biden were tied.
According to the poll, voters rank the following as the most important issues: the economy (48%), abortion (16%), immigration (15%), foreign affairs (6%), and crime (4%).
“The switch from Biden to Harris made a difference in Virginia, but perhaps not as great as some may have thought,” said Dr. Harry Wilson, senior political analyst for IPOR and professor emeritus of political science at Roanoke College.
“The news for Harris is certainly better than it was for Biden, but her three-point lead is still within the margin of error.” “Both candidates are polling very well within their party, and there is a miniscule number of undecided voters. The party bases remain important, as always. The number who say they will vote third party is declining, and those voters may well determine who wins in Virginia.” “One big takeaway continues to be the chasm between the views of Democrats and Republicans. None of it is new, but it is remarkable that partisans interpret everything through different lenses.”
The complete findings of the Roanoke College Poll is listed below:
Roanoke College Poll 2024 by kaitlyndillon.wdbj7 on Scribd
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