A new poll shows Vice President Kamala Harris widening her lead over former President Donald Trump among voters nationwide with just over two months to go until Election Day.
According to a Fairleigh Dickinson University poll, the Democratic presidential candidate is leading largely thanks to growing support among non-white voters.
The poll shows Harris with 50 percent support to Trump’s 43 percent. Another 7 percent said they would vote for someone else in the next election.
When voters are asked to think about race and gender in the upcoming election, the vice president’s lead over Trump grows.
Each candidate has strong support from their parties. Among independent voters, Harris has a lead over Trump of 38 percent to 33 percent.
Survey conducted August 17-20 among registered voters
The poll tested the role of race and gender in voter perceptions as part of a more controversial question-phrasing experiment.
One-third of respondents were first asked “The candidate’s race and ethnicity” as part of their survey, while another third were first asked “Whether the candidate is male or female” as part of their survey.
The poll compared how voters viewed the race when they were primed to think about race and gender versus those who weren’t, and it had a big impact.
When voters were not primed to think about the candidate’s race or gender, the race was basically tied between Harris and Trump 47 percent to 48 percent.
But when the candidate’s gender was mentioned on the list of issues, Harris led by 52 percent to 42 percent. When race was mentioned, Harris had a 14-point lead, 53 percent to 39 percent.
“When voters think about race or gender, support for Trump simply plummets,” said Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson and executive director of the poll.
Cassino noted that strategists and pundits often suggest that Democratic candidates not talk about identity, but poll results tell a different story.
A new poll showed Harris leading Trump by seven points, but it also showed the vice president saw a boost when voters were first primed to think about race and gender in the poll.
When it came to race, the biggest shift was in support among nonwhite voters. When voters were not primed to think about race, Harris led Trump 55 percent to 39 percent among nonwhite voters.
When voters were primed to think about race, support for Trump dropped ten points to just 29 percent.
Among white voters, Trump led Harris by 11 points, but when white voters focused on race, Harris closed the gap slightly, 47 percent to 44 percent.
As for gender, mentions of the candidate’s sex in the polls also drove support away from Trump.
Among women, priming voters to think about the candidates’ gender gave Harris a big boost, while support for Trump fell. The net shift resulted in Harris leading Trump by 59 percent to 33 percent among primed voters.
The survey also changed when respondents were asked how masculine or feminine they considered themselves.
Men who considered themselves “completely masculine” favored Trump over Harris by 64 percent to 30 percent, while all other men favored Harris by a 20-point margin.
Women who said they were “completely feminine” did not differ much from other women. Both groups favored Harris by a 20 percent margin.
“We talk about the gender gap in voting as if it’s between men and women,” Cassino said. “But it’s not. The real gender gap is between men who adhere to traditionally masculine identities and everyone else.”
