NBC’s Steve Kornacki examined the latest polls as the 2024 election enters its final week on Sunday’s “Meet The Press,” noting that former President Donald Trump has taken the lead for the first time this weekend, now ahead by 0.1% in the RealClearPolitics average of polls. He went on to say that in the final weeks of the election cycle, polls are swinging Trump’s way and he has all of the momentum.
“One thing we have noticed in the past couple days, this is not all of the polls that are out there now, but we have seen a number – four in the last four days – that have shown very small – but in the context of this close race, potentially meaningful – movement in Trump’s direction,” Kornacki began. “I don’t want to overstate it, but at the same time, it’s hard to ignore these four. The CNBC poll came out the other day, has Trump ahead by two. The Wall Street Journal poll, Trump ahead by three. These are national numbers. Siena and the New York Times, a tied race. CNN, a tied race. The significance here is broader movement, again, we’re seeing in Trump’s direction. To put this in some context, here is our current national polling average.
“Let me call that up on the screen for you right here. Harris continues to lead nationally, I want to stress that. But we’ve been tracking this every week on the air here. A couple weeks ago, this number was at three for Kamala Harris. Her lead in the poll average now down to 1.2 because of some of the numbers that I just showed you,” the data analyst continued.
“Of course, the swing states, the battleground states are going to be what decide this election. And look how close those are. We see 1.2 nationally, just about all these swing states are even tighter than that. So, Trump, certainly a little improvement nationally. But where the race is decided, absolutely razor thin,” Kornacki added. “But what is happening nationally? Well, we can show you from the CNBC poll, they picked up on something that our own NBC poll was suggesting recently, and that is a shift in the image of Kamala Harris. You could see right now in the CNBC poll, 42% positive, 48% negative. Higher negative than positive. That’s where Trump is too, largely: 39%, 49%.
He continued:
The significance is, about a month ago when we were polling this, Harris had a higher positive than negative. In our poll, in the CNBC poll, in other polls out there right now, we see Harris now with that negative going back above that positive rating. That said, tons of uncertainty and volatility remain in this race.
Check this out. We can show you this morning, also from that CNBC poll, looking at this question of persuadable voters, defining them this way. How about this: 12% in the CNBC poll who currently say they support Harris or Trump say that they could change their mind, still, in this race. Another 6% say they’re undecided or currently going to vote for a third-party candidate. That’s a persuadable category of 18%. That’s getting close to one in five voters here. And the uncertainty is particularly acute for Donald Trump. We tell you, maybe he’s made some gains here but his support continues to run deepest with voters who it is unclear if they’re actually going to turn out and vote.
Look at it this way, from our NBC polling, a merge of all of our data, those who voted in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterms, Harris with a six-point lead. The most reliable bloc of voters. Those who only voted in the 2020 presidential, that’s where Trump opens up a lead. And then those who didn’t vote in either, that’s where Trump has his biggest advantage over Harris. Are they actually going to vote this time around? Huge question mark. Another way to look at it, we asked folks, scale of one to ten: your interest in this election. Again, look at this. Those who rate it the highest, nine or 10, race is tied. Seven or eight, pretty high, Harris is ahead. Here’s where Trump cleans up: those who say one to six. So again, Trump relying on a coalition that, if they turn out, could be powerful for him, Kristen. But that’s a big if.
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