US: Voters View Harris As Candidate Of Change For First Time, NYT/Siena College

A new set of New York Times/Siena College pollshas shown that voters now consider Harris the candidate representing change for the first time. The poll’s topline national number shows Harris leading Trump 49% to 46%, largely in line with the horse-race polling average for the past few weeks.

• The shift in voter perceptions over change is a major boost for Harris, which suggests her campaign has successfully managed Harris' exposure to her status as an incumbent of an unpopular administration.
• The Times notes: “But Mr. Trump has some clear advantages. He is leading among male voters by 11 points; he won them against Mr. Biden by two points in 2020. And 42 percent of respondents said Mr. Trump’s policies had helped them personally, compared with 22 percent who said the same about Mr. Biden’s policies.”
• The Times adds: “More voters said they trusted Mr. Trump than Ms. Harris to manage what continues to be the top area of concern: the economy. (Abortion and immigration were a distant second place.) The economic mood in the nation remains glum — 75 percent of respondents said the economy was in fair or poor condition, the same as last month.”

Figure 1: Voting Intention, Likely Voters