David Byler, of Noble Predictive Insights, said Harris has largely gotten a pass on inflation, an issue voters associated more closely with President Joe Biden.
“What you see now is a much tighter race between Harris and Trump than it ever was between [Trump] and Biden,” he said. “Biden was largely blamed for rising prices and for rising inflation.”
Despite being the vice president during Biden’s term, when inflation spiked to a 40-year high, voters are more optimistic about Harris, Byler said.
“Bottom line was that voters aren’t holding Harris quite as responsible for inflation as they held Biden, and this is one of her big points of improvement over Biden as a candidate,” he said. “[Harris] is improving on Biden’s numbers against Trump on economic issues like inflation and like taxes, and that’s a big explainer for why she’s got the Democratic base back and why this has gone from Trump winning the popular vote to Harris narrowly leading.”