A few thoughts on this new polling from Morning Consult:
- As Sam Shirazi points out, “this would match Biden’s 2020 performance” in Virginia (a 10-point win over Trump). In comparison, Barack Obama won Virginia by 6 points in 2008 and 4 points in 2012, while Hillary Clinton won Virginia by 5 points in 2016.
- This polling is much better (from a Democratic perspective) than the +3 Harris result by Roanoke College’s “poll” a few weeks ago. And I put “poll” in quotes for a bunch of reasons (listed here), including its insane Walz disapproval rating of -17 points, which is wildly implausible and also wildly at odds with pretty much every other poll that’s been taken before and after the Roanoke College “poll.” Now that doesn’t mean Harris is really up 10 points in Virginia, but I’d definitely go with Morning Consult over Roanoke College just because the latter’s “internal” numbers were SO bizarre and nonsensical (in addition to Walz’s implausible disapproval rating, there’s no way Youngkin’s approval surged over the summer, there’s also no way Virginians are almost evenly split on whether or not Trump’s a threat to democracy, there’s no way Trump has a 6-point lead in a hypothetical matchup against Joe Biden, etc, etc.).
- What’s crazy is that the Virginia political media just ran with that Roanoke College “poll,” with almost no caveats or doubts, despite its glaringly obvious flaws. We’ll see if they run with this Morning Consult poll, downplay it, ignore it or what…
- Beyond Virginia, these Morning Consult polls look good for Kamala Harris, although it remains INSANE that this race is even close, given that the Republican nominee is a rapist, racist, insurrectionist, traitor, felon, scumbag, wannabe dictator, etc, etc. What. The. F*** America??? In a relatively sane, informed country, this race should be like 60% Harris-40% Trump (and an Electoral College landslide for Harris) – or more!
- Finally, standard caveats: don’t trust any polling, certainly don’t get overconfident, work like the race is tied (or whatever motivates you best), “leave it all on the field”/”run through the tape,” etc!
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