A surge in Democratic fundraising and increased enthusiasm after Vice President Kamala Harris took over Joe Biden’s campaign may not be enough to propel her to victory in November.
Several polls conducted after or in the days surrounding the end of Biden’s re-election campaign on Sunday show Donald Trump ahead of Harris, and sometimes by even larger margins than he had when he beat Biden.
Polls show the former president leading the vice president by as much as 9 percent and by at least 2 percent since Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee this week.
A Morning Consult poll conducted the same day and immediately after Biden dropped out of the race shows Trump leading Harris 47 percent to 45 percent.
Some other polling services began their surveys a day or two before the President made his surprising announcement and concluded them after he was no longer in the race, providing a pool of respondents both before and after the news broke.
Several polls conducted amid President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his re-election bid show Vice President Kamala Harris trailing Donald Trump in the 2024 race
Biden withdrew four days after he was removed from the campaign trail during a visit to Nevada following a positive COVID-19 test. White House physician Kevin O’Connor has issued daily updates on the president’s condition, but he has yet to be seen in person since the diagnosis Wednesday.
Some Republicans are demanding that the president provide “proof of life.”
Biden is scheduled to return to Washington, D.C. from Delaware on Tuesday afternoon. It would be his first time out of there in six days.
Just moments after posting the one-page letter to X on Sunday, Biden sent out a follow-up tweet endorsing his vice president to take over his campaign.
On Monday, Harris secured enough delegate support to clinch the nomination at the Democratic National Convention next month.
Quinnipiac University released a poll the day after Biden dropped out that was conducted from Friday to Sunday and had Trump ahead in a head-to-head matchup with Harris by 2 percent.
But when registered voters were asked to also consider other candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Jill Stein, Trump was ahead by 4 points with 45 percent, over Harris, who came in second with 41 percent.
Trump (pictured at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday) has a lead of at least 2 points over Harris and as much as 9 percent.
The largest gap between the vice president and the former president was 9 percent in a Forbes/HarrisX poll, which like the Quinnipiac poll, was conducted two days before and on the day of Biden’s withdrawal, Sunday, July 21.
Trump got 50 percent in that poll, compared to Harris’s 41 percent.
In the seven hours after Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Democratic fundraising surged by a record $46.4 million.
But the influx of donations does not necessarily translate into enthusiasm for Harris’s candidacy, according to polls.