US Vice President Kamala Harris is seen ideally placed to exploit Donald Trump's weaknesses on abortion and women's issues more broadly
US Vice President Kamala Harris AFP

As the U.S. polls enter the final two months, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has maintained a slight edge over former President Donald Trump, according to a new national poll.

Harris led Trump by 4 percentage points, securing 50% of the vote among all adults and registered voters, compared to Trump's 46%. When it came to likely voters, Harris's lead widened slightly to 52% against Trump's 46%, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll that was released Sunday. These numbers remain consistent with the findings from a poll conducted in August.

In the ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted before the Democratic National Convention, the vice president had 49% support among registered voters, while Trump had 45%. Now, in the poll conducted after the DNC, 56% of Americans feel Harris is doing a good job running her campaign, while 42% feel she is handling her campaign poorly.

Compared to the vice president's 56%, 41% of Americans feel that Trump is handling his campaign well. About 57% of Americans think that Trump is handling his campaign poorly.

As per the poll, 43% of Americans expect Harris to win the debate on Sept. 10, whereas 37% support Trump. About one in five (18%) either expects a tie or doesn't expect either of them to win.

Pollsters pointed out that though findings from the latest poll have mostly remained unchanged from the August poll results released just before the DNC, Harris has, however, managed to widen the gender gap, The Hill reported.

She was leading by 13 points among women — 54% to 41% — while Trump was ahead 5 points among men — 51% to 46%. Before the convention, the vice president was up 6 points among women, according to the poll.

Moreover, Americans are more confident of Trump when it comes to key issues such as the economy and inflation, as he was ahead of Harris by 8 points in these categories. The former president also had a 9-point lead over Harris in handling the immigration situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump also scored over Harris, with 46% of Americans calling her too liberal, while 43% called Trump too conservative. However, Americans view Harris as more trustworthy than Trump in protecting American democracy and appointments to the Supreme Court, according to pollsters.

The latest ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted from Aug. 23-27 and involved 2,496 completed interviews.

In the same poll, nearly 93% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 24% of Republicans viewed Harris' campaign positively, while 79% of Republicans, 38% of Independents, and 13% of Democrats voted in favor of Trump, ABC7 reported.

Harris garnered 86% support from Democrats to win the ABC News presidential debate on Sept. 10, while Trump managed to win over 79% of Republicans. While Independents picked Harris by a 7 point margin, 43%-37% of the public expected Harris to triumph in the debate.