Vice President Kamala Harris has received the best presidential election polling result for Democrats in over a year in the potentially critical swing state of Nevada.
Harris, who has been riding a wave of momentum since launching her campaign following President Joe Biden’s exit from the race on July 21, is leading former President Donald Trump in The Silver State by 5.6 percent in a poll released on Friday by The Nevada Independent.
Biden won Nevada by just over 2 percent in 2020. However, the president was consistently lagging behind Trump in Nevada in nearly all polls conducted this year, with the outlier being an Emerson College/The Hill survey that showed Biden drawing level with the ex-president.
Limited polling conducted since Harris became Trump’s opponent has revealed mixed but far more positive results for Democrats. A Morning Consult/Bloomberg poll released late last month showed the vice president up by 2 points. Other polls show Trump with a slim lead or the race tied.
The Nevada Independent survey, conducted by pollster and Columbia University lecturer David Wolfson, was the best result for the Democratic presidential ticket since a Morning Consult/Bloomberg poll released in October showed Biden leading Trump by 3 percentage points.
The new poll, which was conducted among 991 likely Nevada voters from August 3 to August 5, showed that Harris was favored by 49.2 percent of respondents. Trump was supported by 43.6 percent of voters, while independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was preferred by 3.9 percent. The poll has a 3 percent margin of error.
Wolfson suggested that the results were less the product of enthusiasm for Harris and more an indication of support for Democrats other than Biden, telling The Nevada Independent that there had been “a collective sigh of relief that Joe Biden is not going to be running” and any other Democrat “would be polling as well at this point of the race.”
A Nevada Independent poll released in April 2023, which was conducted partially before Biden announced his plans to then seek a second term, showed the incumbent Democrat leading Trump by 8 points in a hypothetical 2020 rematch.
Newsweek reached out for comment to the Trump and Harris campaigns via email on Friday evening.
Nevada is not the only swing state where Harris has made significant polling gains less than three weeks since entering the race. Averages of recent polls compiled by polling website FiveThirtyEight also showed the vice president with small leads over Trump in the crucial “Rust Belt” swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as of Friday.
Trump’s leads in Nevada’s fellow “Sun Belt” swing states of Georgia and Arizona have been whittled down to less than 1 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight averages. Biden won all six of the battleground states in 2020, mostly by slim margins.
On Thursday, the Cook Political Report moved 2024 forecasts of Arizona, Nevada and Georgia from “lean Republican” to “toss-up” states. Sabato’s Crystal Ball also shifted Georgia, Minnesota and New Hampshire toward the Democrats this week, with Minnesota and New Hampshire moving to “likely Democrat” and Georgia becoming a “toss-up.”
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Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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On weekday mornings, Nevada Sports Net will recap three big headlines of the day in its Morning Download. Read below for today’s topics.
On Monday, Nevada athletics is scheduled to hold a “topping off” ceremony at its Fieldhouse construction site as progress continues on the all-sport facility west of Mackay Stadium. The “topping off” feature the final beam being placed atop the fieldhouse structure. Groundbreaking on the $28 million Fieldhouse was held in August with the project going vertical last month. The Fieldhouse, which Nevada has sought since the early 2000s, will give Wolf Pack football an indoor practice space and also provide the remainder of the Wolf Pack’s teams a place to train during high-heat summer or cold-winter days. The space also will serve as the home to the school’s intramural and club sports teams. The project, largely being funded by a new $3.50 per-credit student fee, is expected to be completed this summer or fall. The 72,000-square foot facility will be paid via a sublease that is projected to cost $64.1 million through the final payment in 2056. We got footage of the build earlier this month.
A portion of Hawaii’s Aloha Stadium was demolished Thursday as the state prepares to build the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District. Officials completed a controlled collapse of the upper section of the stadium using a technique called “tripping” to remove the support structures, causing the upper deck to fall. Smaller portions of the demo started in mid-February with a planned completion date of December. The state will build a new 30,000-seat Aloha Stadium surrounded by an entertainment district that is expected to be completed in March 2029 at a cost of $650 million, with half of that money coming from private investors. You can see drone footage of the demolition below.
Nevada’s Lilly Urban won the javelin at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on Thursday with a heave of 56.60 meters, besting her toss at last year’s national championships. Teammate Hallee Hughes placed second at 50.57 meters. Last year, Urban finished 11th in the javelin at the NCAA Championships with a mark of 55.27 meters, earning second-team All-America honors. Meanwhile, at Thursday’s Bryan Clay Invitational, Aubrey Thompson posted a personal-best performance in the 10,000 meters, finishing 12th with a time of 37 minutes, 25.38 seconds. In the 3000 steeplechase, Natalie Roberts clocked a time of 10:59.09, finishing 97th. The Wolf Pack will return Friday for the bulk of its competition.
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