A new Emerson College Polling national survey finds 50% of voters support Vice President Kamala Harris, while 48% support former President Donald Trump for president in 2024. One percent support someone else, and 1% are undecided.
“The margin between the candidates has stayed the same since early September, when Harris held 49% and Trump 47%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “Harris maintains a slight edge, though less than Biden’s four-point lead in Emerson 2020 national polls at this time.”
Half of voters have a favorable view of Harris, while 50% have an unfavorable view of her.
Forty-nine percent have a favorable view of Trump, while 51% have an unfavorable view of him.
Prior to the Vice Presidential debate, 46% had a favorable view of Tim Walz, while 46% had an unfavorable view of him. Nine percent had not heard of him. Similarly, 46% had a favorable view of JD Vance, while 48% had an unfavorable view of him, 6% had never heard of Vance.
On the generic congressional ballot, 47% support the Democratic candidate, 46% the Republican, and 7% are undecided.
A majority of voters (56%) think Trump and Harris should have another debate, while 35% think they should not.
- A majority of Democrats 69% and independents (58%) think Trump and Harris should have another debate. Republicans are more split: 49% think Trump and Harris should not have another debate, while 41% think they should.
The top issue for voters is the economy (41%), immigration (17%), threats to democracy (11%), abortion access (7%), healthcare (6%), housing affordability (6%), and crime (3%).
- Republicans are most concerned about the economy (51%) and immigration (27%).
- Independents’ top issues include the economy (44%), and immigration (16%).
- Democrats are more split: 31% say the economy is the top issue, 19% threats to democracy, 14% abortion access
Voters were asked about providing financial assistance to first-time home buyers through a direct grant to help them purchase a home to address the wealth gap. Fifty-three percent of voters support such a proposal, while 12% neither support nor oppose, and 35% oppose it.
The policy is most supported by young voters, and less popular with older voters: 72% of voters under 30 support the policy, 69% in their 30s, 60% in their 40s, 37% in their 50s, 43% of those 60 and over. Such a policy is supported by 88% of Democrats, 29% of Republicans, and 39% of independents.
Methodology
The Emerson College Polling national survey was conducted September 29-October 1, 2024. The sample of likely voters, n=1,000, has a credibility interval, similar to a poll’s margin of error (MOE), of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, education, race, age, party affiliation, and region based on 2024 likely voter modeling. Turnout modeling is based on U.S. Census parameters, exit polls, and voter registration data.
It is important to remember that subsets based on demographics, such as gender, age, education, and race/ethnicity, carry with them higher credibility intervals, as the sample size is reduced. Survey results should be understood within the poll’s range of scores, and with a confidence interval of 95% a poll will fall outside the range of scores 1 in 20 times.
Data was collected by contacting cell phones via MMS-to-web text, landlines via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) (both lists provided by Aristotle), and an online panel of voters who were pre-matched to L2 voter file data, provided by Rep Data. The survey was offered in English.
All questions asked in this survey with the exact wording, along with full results, demographics, and cross tabulations can be found under Full Results. This survey was funded by Emerson College.
