Vice President Harris has seemingly tied the race with President Trump both nationally and across critical battleground states, according to new polling. Her rapid rise from the second-in-command of a fledgling campaign under President Biden to within striking distance of the White House is powered, in part, by Democratic voters, minorities, and women rallying to the new nominee. 

According to a poll released by CBS News poll Sunday, Ms. Harris and Trump are statistically tied nationally, with the vice president taking 50 percent and the former president taking 49 percent. The margin of error for the survey is 2.1 percent. 

In swing states, the two are dead-even, with both Ms. Harris and Trump taking an average of 50 percent across Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina. 

In a six-way race nationally with Ms. Harris, Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, Cornel West, and Chase Oliver, Ms. Harris leads Trump by two points, 49 percent to 47 percent. 

One of the reasons Ms. Harris has been able to catch Trump — who was leading Mr. Biden by five points in the last CBS poll before the president dropped out of the race — is due to key Democratic constituencies coming home, especially minorities and women. Among women who were polled by CBS, 70 percent said Ms. Harris’ policies would help women, while just 43 percent said the same of Trump’s policies. 

The executive director of CBS News’ polling center, Anthony Salvanto, told “Face the Nation” on Sunday that Ms. Harris was enjoying “a big reset” after Mr. Biden dropped his bid, paving the way for the vice president to take over. “You see core Democratic constituencies say they’re going to vote,” Mr. Salvanto says of Democrats coming home and expressing their enthusiasm. “Women tell us that they think that Harris would look out for the interests of women much more so than Donald Trump.”

Among women, Ms. Harris leads Trump by nine points, 54 percent to 45 percent, while Trump leads Ms. Harris among men by the same margin. 

Minority voters, too, are coming home to Ms. Harris after expressing their doubts about Mr. Biden. In one CBS News July poll before the president made the historic decision to drop out, just 73 percent of Black voters said they would vote for Mr. Biden, compared to 24 percent who were planning on voting for Trump. That margin could have led to a landslide victory for Trump in the Electoral College, given that Mr. Biden won 92 percent of the Black vote in 2020, helping put him over the top in states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.

The new CBS poll finds that Ms. Harris is winning 81 percent of the Black vote, while Trump takes 18 percent. Among Black voters polled, 80 percent said Ms. Harris’ policies would help Black communities, while just 20 percent said the same of Trump’s platform. 

A great benefit for Ms. Harris being rapidly installed as the nominee by the Democratic Party’s delegates is that she is relatively undefined in the minds of voters. Just 18 percent of CBS poll respondents say Ms. Harris’ policies are “entirely the same” as Mr. Biden’s, despite the fact she has been the vice president for nearly four years and has never once publicly disagreed with the president. Some 64 percent of those polled said the pair’s policies are “mostly the same”, while 18 percent say Ms. Harris’ and Mr. Biden’s policy platforms are mostly or entirely different. 

Across the battleground states that will decide the election, Ms. Harris is either tied with or running very close behind Trump, though she leads the former president in Nevada by two percent. The two candidates are tied in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and Ms. Harris is running behind — but within the margin of error — in Wisconsin. Trump leads in Georgia and North Carolina by three points, barely outside of the margin or error.