Former President Donald Trump edged out Vice President Kamala Harris by three percentage points in a new Rasmussen Reports national head-to-head poll.
Trump came out ahead 49% to 46%. That amounts to a slight gain for Harris, who was lagging behind Trump 45% to 49% in Rasmussen’s poll last week.
When third-party hopefuls were added to the mix, Trump came out on top again with 47% to Harris’ 45%, followed by Independent contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at 4%, and all others at 1% or less, per Rasmussen.
Kennedy is expected to suspend his campaign and endorse Trump on Friday. Such a move is widely seen as benefiting Trump.
Rasmussen’s findings are an outlier among recent national polling. The conservative-leaning firm has often been at odds with other top pollsters. In 2016, it was among the closest firms to the final result.
Harris is averaging a 2-point lead over Trump in the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of a national five-way race. In a two-way race, her lead slips to 1.5 percentage points.
Rasmussen’s poll sampled 1,893 likely voters between Aug. 15 and Aug. 21 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Trump had long dominated the RealClearPolitics aggregates of national polling when President Biden was at the top of the Democratic ticket. After Harris took over, she quickly became the polling leader nationally.
Battleground state polling has tightened significantly as well, with different firms finding mixed results in the key contests.
However, Harris still trails Trump. In RealClearPolitics’ battleground state estimate, Trump is projected to win 287 Electoral College votes to Harris’ 251 — taking every major swing state except Wisconsin.
Harris has deemed herself the “underdog” in the race, alluding to her late start at the top of the ticket and seeking to keep Democrats on their toes.
“She should be the underdog because she did such a bad job,” Trump previously told The Post in a recent interview. “The job that she did was a disgrace, and to think that she’s now running for president.”
