Kamala Harris’s approval rating is the biggest since Bush since 9/11

Harris leads the former president and Republican nominee 49 percent to 44 percent, which is within the margin of error, in an NBC News poll conducted Sept. 13-17. She leads Trump 52 percent to 48 percent in a Sept. 18-20 CBS/Ipsos poll conducted entirely after the apparent assassination attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course on Sept. 15.

Harris’ overall favorability has gained 16 percentage points in NBC polls compared to before he entered the presidential race in July. Only 32 percent of registered voters said they viewed the vice president in a positive light at the time, compared with 48 percent in the most recent poll.

The network said it was the largest increase of any candidate in its poll since President George W. Bush’s approval rating rose in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the US.

While Election Day is Nov. 5, early voting has already begun in Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota. It will expand to more states by October.

Harris’s late entry as the Democratic nominee propelled a once monotonous race that has since been turned upside down. A disastrous debate presentation by President Joe Biden in late June led to his exit from the race, with Harris’ entry quickly erasing Trump’s lead.

However, victory in the presidential election will likely hinge on the outcome in a limited number of battleground states.

CBS rated all seven key states in its polling model as tossups, with Harris holding a margin of error lead in all but two. Both the candidates and their allies have tried to mobilize voters in key states in the last six weeks of the campaign.

“This election is going to be close,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat whose state is among the battlegrounds, told CNN. State of the Union Sunday.

“I’ve always known that,” she said. “And in a state like Michigan or Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, we know this is going to be a close race.”

On the economy, widely seen as one of his policy liabilities, Harris narrowed his deficit in the CBS poll among voters who care most about the issue. Trump leads Harris 53% to 47% in that subset of voters, compared to 56% to 43% in August.

Asked about the intent of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, 65 percent said it was to make people fear migrants, and 63 percent said the stories were probably false.