ROANOKE, Va. – A new Roanoke College poll gives Vice President Kamala Harris a slim three-point lead over former President Donald Trump in Virginia.
It’s the first poll from the college’s Institute for Policy and Opinion Research since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. The previous poll from the college showed Biden and Trump tied. Both results were in the poll’s margin of error. In this latest poll, it was 4.5 percent.
“If you’re the Harris campaign, you’re certainly happy to see that you’re up by three points, instead of tied,” said Harry Wilson, senior political analyst.
“If you’re the Trump campaign, you’d like to see the tie from three months ago, even though statistically it’s no different than being down three.”
Harris maintained a three-point lead in the poll when third-party candidates were also included in the race. Wilson said the poll shows that while the Democratic nominee has changed, not much has changed in the views of voters about the election despite Biden’s withdrawal and the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
“In some ways, that’s surprising given what’s happened since our May poll and in the last month,” he said.
The poll interviewed 691 respondents between Aug. 12 and 16. Respondents cited the economy as being the most important issue in the election, followed by abortion and immigration.
The poll also found Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine had a 49 percent to 38 percent lead over his Republican challenger Hung Cao.