A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) US election poll shows that Mr. Trump has opened up a narrow gap in the presidential race, as voters have a more positive view of his agenda and past performance.
According to a WSJ national poll, Republican candidate Donald Trump has 47% support, leading 2% over Democratic rival Kamala Harris (45%).
Previously, a Wall Street Journal survey in August showed that Ms. Harris was 2% ahead of Mr. Trump.
Since August, voters have been evenly split between having a positive and unfavorable view of Kamala Harris. Currently, 53% have an unfavorable view compared to 45% who have a positive view. Additionally, 42% of voters approve and 54% disapprove of her job performance.
Views of Mr. Trump, by contrast, have become more optimistic. Voters rate his time as president more positively than at any point in this election cycle, with 52% approving and 48% disapproving of his performance in office.
Voters also gave Mr. Trump a solid edge in most cases when asked about the candidates’ agendas and policies. The gap between voters who had a positive view of Mr. Trump’s economic plan and those who had an unfavorable view was 10 points, while the gap for Ms. Harris was just 4 points.
The poll comes as campaigns have spent heavily on advertising to shape the candidates’ images, especially Ms. Harris, who is little known to voters.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has spent more than $378 million on broadcast, cable, radio and digital ads since the party conventions ended in late August. Much of that advertising is aimed at portraying Ms. Harris as too radical for the country.
Meanwhile, Ms. Harris's campaign spent more than $625 million, much of it aimed at presenting her in a more favorable light to voters.
“Voters are finally getting to know her better. The definition phase is coming to an end, and more people are dissatisfied with what they know about her than they are with what they know about Trump,” said David Lee, who conducted the WSJ poll with Democrat Michael Bocian.
Bocian noted that a WSJ poll earlier this month of seven battleground states — states that could determine the winner of the Electoral College — showed the two candidates neck and neck, with Trump only gaining ground in Nevada.
"All signs point to a very unpredictable race and the final two weeks will decide who votes and who wins in what is an incredibly close US presidential election," said Bocian.
The WSJ poll surveyed 1,500 registered voters from Oct. 19-22. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
