by Manzanita Miller

While the mainstream media, the Democratic Party elite, and deep-pocketed Wall Street interests are doing everything they can to prop up Vice President Kamala Harris through Nov. 5, new data shows she might have reached her polling peak.

After six weeks of giddy excitement from Democrats, Harris’ campaign appears to be slowly losing steam. In several new polls, she is neck and neck with Trump—or a few points behind him.

Her reluctance to talk to the press and the word-salad interview she fed the public in the only recent interview she has agreed to are not helping things. According to new polls, a majority of Americans do not see Harris as a strong leader, and the core issues Americans are focused on—inflation, immigration, and jobs—are areas she has failed to provide solutions for in the Biden administration.

Polls are beginning to reflect this. The latest ActiVote poll places Harris ahead of Trump by just 1.6 points, 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent, well within the margin of error. This is a five-point decline for Harris compared to ActiVote’s poll from two weeks ago.

Surveys released from Trafalgar Group show Harris trailing former President Donald Trump in three key battleground states as well. The Trafalgar Group found Trump ahead of Harris by two points in Pennsylvania, 47 percent to 45 percent, and one point in Wisconsin, 47 percent to 46 percent. In Michigan, Trump is ahead by about half a percent, 47 percent to 46.6 percent.

Last week, Emerson College Polling showed a similarly tightening race in battleground states, with Trump and Harris neck-and-neck and neither candidate securing a lead outside the margin of error. The polls found Harris leading Trump by one point in Georgia, one point in Nevada, and three points in Michigan. Trump led her by three points in Arizona, one point in North Carolina, and one point in Wisconsin.

Elsewhere, Harris is in trouble as well. A new poll from KSTP and SurveyUSA found her lead halving in Minnesota, the home state of her radical left-wing Vice Presidential pick, Governor Tim Walz.

Harris is also suffering a significant issue with independent voters, a fact that cannot be ignored considering around 41 percent of the country currently identifies as independent, a much larger share than identify as Republican or Democrat.

Why is enthusiasm for Harris starting to fizzle? Perhaps the reality of her candidacy is sinking in. In the weeks since the first presidential debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, Biden was in an extremely weak position. Virtually anyone would have been a stronger candidate than he was – which is exactly why he was unceremoniously replaced by Harris.

Democrats crowed over their new candidate, quickly anointing Harris with the party’s nomination. However, the rest of the public remains skeptical. Polling continues to show that a plurality of Americans are focused on the price of goods and fuel, with immigration and jobs coming in at a close second and third.

According to the latest YouGov survey, the vast majority of the public—23 percent—say inflation is their number one concern. The next largest share—13 percent—say immigration is their top concern, and 12 percent say jobs and the economy are their top concerns.

Harris has attempted to court moderates and economically driven voters but largely failed. She has been by Biden’s side as inflation has swallowed the country, and she has largely failed at stopping the tide of illegal immigrants from flooding our southern border. Yet these issues are top of mind for most voters.

A majority of Americans also believe Harris is a weak leader overall. According to the latest YouGov survey, the largest share of the public—38 percent—thinks Harris is a very weak leader. Only 24 percent say she is an influential leader, 25 percent say she is somewhat firm, and 13 percent say she is somewhat weak.

The cross tabs for this question are alarming. A full 41 percent of independents say Harris is a very weak leader, compared to only 13 percent who say she is a very strong one. Moderates agree, with 30 percent of moderates saying Harris is a very weak leader compared to 23 percent who say she is a very strong one.

Another reason Harris is in trouble is her opportunistic flip-flopping since she ran as a radical against Joe Biden in the Democratic primaries in 2020. Harris is now attempting to rewrite herself as a working-class champion, distancing herself from her former economically crushing stances on the environment and immigration.

In one of the few interviews Harris has been willing to conduct with the press since becoming the Democratic nominee, Harris had difficulty explaining her position changes when lightly pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash.

When Dana pressed Harris about her support of a fracking ban in 2019, Harris dodged the fact that she had originally stated she supported a ban and said she would not support one now. She also failed to clarify her intentions for addressing inflation and did not clarify how she would secure the border.

This uncertainty does not bolster confidence, and according to a recent YouGov survey, Americans say Harris has not communicated her position changes “at all effectively,” saying so by a margin of ten points.

Harris claimed in the interview that her “values have not changed.” If her values haven’t changed but her policies have, is she simply seizing upon positions she thinks will win her moderates only to revert back to radical positions once she is president?

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

Cross-posted with The Daily Torchvia  Conservative Firing Line

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