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Harris and Trump are now tied — maybe

My beloved YouGov poll suggests the presidential race is now dead even:

This confirms the Morning Consult poll that showed Harris losing a bit of support in swing states compared to a couple of weeks ago.

However, it turns out the entire change in this week's poll is due to Harris losing support from Hispanic voters, dropping from 59% to 50% in the past week. How likely is that? Coming on the back of last week's sudden 9-point drop among Black voters—which reverted to normal this week—I'm starting to have some doubts about YouGov's mechanics.

32 thoughts on “Harris and Trump are now tied — maybe

  1. bbleh

    YouGov is much more opportunistic than others in their sample selection, no? This would (1) raise the usual questions of sample subpopulation sizes and (2) make them more prone to freeping.

  2. lower-case

    psa:

    freeping - stacking poll results by directing people to a web poll; with the goal of intentionally biasing the results to support their particular point of view

    the guardian:

    “The headline for the next few days will be how he lost this thing,” one GOP representative told Politico. “I expect him to do something drastic, whether it’s a campaign shake-up or some other wild antic, by the end of the week to change the upcoming news cycle.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/11/trump-harris-debate-republican-reaction

    1. bbleh

      Oooh, oh! What will it be? Will he pull JD's mangled body from under the bus and throw it completely overboard? Insist that Philadelphia isn't actually part of Real America and demand that the debate be done over in Oklahoma City? Incite his crazy followers to attack Disney World? (Disney owns ABC.)

      Should we start a pool? Sell futures, or maybe NFTs for various scenarios? Trump Meltdown Trading Cards -- collect the entire set!

      1. lower-case

        if the assassination attempt did nothing for his poll numbers it's hard to imagine what sort of antics would have any effect

        and after last night's humiliation our big orange toddler is probably feeling pretty glum today

          1. Marlowe

            I saw an article listing these polls (something like four), which actually do exist. Sort of. They are things like Newsmax internet polls and others of an equally "reliable" nature.

      2. ruralhobo

        Campaign shakeup. Meaning getting rid of anyone who gives him bad news, if there's still someone who dares, and putting in Laura Loomer or someone like her.

        I think he's started to conflate his comfort zone with "winning"; that the more bad news he gets, the more he'll elevate bad advisers. And this is just old age. IMO Biden was doing it too (turning to Hunter when he started losing support). Trump is insane on top of it.

  3. Jasper_in_Boston

    Kevin: To echo what a lot of your readers have been saying, why not go with an aggregator instead of a single poll? I consult five of them: Silver, Guardian, WaPo, RCP, and 538. I think she's still up about 2.5 points on that basis (a simple average).

    1. camusvsartre

      Yeah. Harris is up 2.7 on 538 and 2.2 on Silver this morning. The 538 composite includes the You Gov poll that Kevin mentions. The cell sizes on polls like You Gov are way too small to learn anything useful about individual groups like Blacks or Latino voters. Watching MSNBC this morning obsess about their focus group of undecided voters is truly maddening. Lets see now we have a choice between an intellegent articulate women and a raving incoherent liar. Who should I chose? Of course you do have to know something to know he is lying but I wouldn't think you have to know much to realize he is an angry incoherent bully.

      1. Josef

        His base either doesn't care he's lying or truly believes him. Not sure which is worse. If you're undecided in this election I think maybe having that elective lobotomy wasn't your best decision.

        1. lower-case

          truth vs lies doesn't matter; they trust him

          if the truth works in their favor, that's great, but if it cuts the other way they don't just tolerate bullshit, they demand it

    2. kahner

      I'm very pro-aggregator, but the way i understand them to work they will react more slowly to changes in the race as it averages in older polls with lower weighting to drop volatility. So having one standard, high quality poll you look at (as opposed to cherry-picking whatever looks the best for your side today) in addition to the aggregates makes sense to me.

      1. Jasper_in_Boston

        but the way i understand them to work they will react more slowly to changes in the race as it averages

        This is true, but that's a feature, not a bug IMHO. I don't want the short-term noise.

        1. kahner

          yeah, but in cases where there's an event that you suspect will lead to a real, sudden change, this lets you see it much faster. so post debate for example, i expect there will be a non-noise jump for harris and i'll be looking at any individual polls coming out with interest.

  4. Justin

    “They’re eating the dogs.”

    And it looks like a close call. Hilarious. It’s time to let go… it doesn’t matter if he becomes president again, we’ve already lost.

      1. bmore

        I use the mail as little as possible now. Too many lost or late items. I drop my mail in ballot in one of the ballot collection boxes. Of course, I live in a blue state city, so drop boxes are convenient and safe

      1. cld

        Like they told him if he wears his new jacket and just sits still while they're there they'll take him to Chuck E. Cheese afterward and tell them it's his birthday.

  5. JohnH

    It's a puzzle. The NY Times, too, keeps trying to find blacks and Latinos moving to Trump. Why is beyond me when Trump, Vance, and their supporters display their racism more every day.

    But then the Times was the only exception to the overwhelming consensus that Harris trounced Trump. While it had several articles agreeing, it led with one claiming that the mythical swing voter isn't buying. The Times also worked hard to include the editor of a right-wing publication in its wrap-up of pundits. Naturally he was the only one to say that Trump won.

  6. D_Ohrk_E1

    All of the Morning Consult poll change could be attributed to its net +2 Republican shift in its underlying weighting of likely voters.

    Just saying.

    1. D_Ohrk_E1

      Doubtful. Media will find what it wants to find. Recall, CNN had an "undecided" group but one was actually a prior Trump voter and was leaning toward Trump. Et voila, he was the only one who said he was going to vote for Trump after watching the DNC, while the others all said they were now leaning towards Harris.

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