Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘Harris Is Doing Considerably Worse’: CNN’s Harry Enten Breaks Down Why Current Polling ‘Makes Democrats Worry’

'Harris Is Doing Considerably Worse': CNN's Harry Enten Breaks Down Why Current Polling 'Makes Democrats Worry'

CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten explained on Friday why Vice President Kamala Harris’ current polling causes concern for Democrats about her chances against former President Donald Trump in November.

Trump currently holds narrow leads over Harris in six of the top seven battleground states, with the vice president only leading by 0.3% in Wisconsin, according to the RealClearPolling averages. Enten, on “CNN News Central,” focused on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Harris has a one-point lead in his aggregated data — a smaller margin than three weeks ago and notably lower than the leads President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held over Trump in 2016 and 2020.

WATCH:

“If Kamala Harris wins these three, she most likely gets to 270 electoral votes. Take a look three weeks ago, Harris was ahead by two in Pennsylvania, two in Wisconsin, three in Michigan. Look at where we are today, the race is even tighter, even tighter than it was. Today, it’s a one-point advantage in Pennsylvania, one in Wisconsin, one in Michigan,” Enten said. “Look, that’s limited movement, but in a year in which this race has been so static for talking one point movement, one point movement, two point movements. And we see movements in all three.”

“This is the type of thing that, at least in the public polling, makes Democrats worry,” he continued. “And I think that the public polling in this case is reflected in some of that internal polling, some of that reporting that suggests that these Great Lake battleground states have certainly tightened a lot where at this point they are way too close to call.”

Journalist Mark Halperin said on Tuesday that Harris is on a worsened trajectory to win the swing states based on the latest private polling he has seen.

“We’re going to look at an average across these three states, right? Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, an average on October 11th, what do you see? Well, if you look eight years ago, Hillary Clinton was way out in front in an average of these three, she was up by eight,” Enten said. “You go four years ago, Joe Biden was up by an average of seven points across these three Great Lake battleground states, yet come today, it’s just a one-point advantage for Kamala Harris across these three Great Lake battleground states.”

“So Kamala Harris, at least in the polling, is doing considerably worse than Biden or Clinton. And of course, Clinton lost in all three of these states. And Joe Biden barely won in all three of these states,” he told host John Berman. “So when you see Harris up by just a point across these three, I think that this is really the type of thing that gets Democrats really to worry, John, because the simple fact is Kamala Harris is doing considerably worse than either Biden or Clinton was.”

Enten also noted on Tuesday that if Trump exceeds his 2024 polling by the same margin he did against Biden in 2020, he will secure enough battleground states to beat Harris “in a blowout.”