The debate helped Harris in one major way: More seem to see her as smart and presidential, the poll found. The share of voters who view Harris as intelligent has gone up since August, and she’s more likely than Trump to be viewed as temperamentally fit to be president.
Jonathan Swan
Whenever a poll of Pennsylvania is released, the political world devours it. Both campaigns see Pennsylvania as the potential decider state. Trump’s team views his clearest path to the presidency as a combination of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
Shane Goldmacher
One of the interesting findings in the poll isn’t just whether Trump or Harris better represent change to voters. The answer there is clearly Trump. But the poll also asked who will “bring about the right kind of change” — and on that measure they were nearly tied.
Maggie Haberman
One standout detail from the Pennsylvania poll: Harris’s favorability there has risen from 42 percent in early July, shortly after Trump’s debate against President Biden, to 51 percent. Considering how negatively most voters view national figures, that’s a large jump.
Ruth Igielnik
The poll showed that many more voters saw Trump as the more “extreme” candidate, 74 percent versus 46 percent. But that may not be a weakness — Trump wins by 50 points among voters who say extreme describes him “somewhat well.”
Jess Bidgood
This result in Pennsylvania is welcome news for the Harris campaign, which has also seen a recent edge in most recent high-quality polls of Wisconsin and Michigan. If Harris wins all three of those states, plus one more electoral vote, she would win the presidency.
Christine Zhang
The poll also tested the favorability of Taylor Swift, the pop superstar who endorsed Ms. Harris immediately after the debate and who Mr. Trump declared that he hated over the weekend. Seventy percent of Democrats view her favorably; only 23 percent of Republicans do.
Jonathan Swan
The new NYT/Siena poll tracks with the Trump campaign’s private polling in one important respect. Both public and private polling since the debate show that an overwhelming majority of voters thought Harris beat Trump in the debate.
