The Morning: 5 takeaways from the NYT poll

The New York Times/Siena College poll came out Sunday. The big headline: The race is effectively tied with Donald Trump at 48% to 47% for Vice President Kamala Harris.

But you guys know I like to go beyond the headlines! So I dug into the full poll — you can do it too here! — and picked out five other numbers that seem important to me.

Taken as a whole, they suggest challenges for Harris over the final two months of this campaign. Let’s get into them.

1. Just 28% of people think the country is on the right track while 60% think it is headed in the wrong direction. While you shouldn’t assume all 60% believe that the wrong direction is the result of Joe Biden’s policies, it’s safe to guess that most people know he is president — and aren’t happy with how things are going.

2. To that end: Just 37% approve of Biden while 60% disapprove. Even tougher for the incumbent, 46% strongly disapprove of him while just 17% strongly approve. The message for Harris? She needs to find ways to break with Biden. If she is seen as a continuation of his term, it’s no good for her. (More on that below).

3. Fully 3 in 10 voters (31%) said they felt like they needed to know more about Harris. Of that group, nearly two thirds said they needed to know more about her plans and policies, specifically. (Harris did update her website with an issues section on Sunday.) Just 12% said they needed to know more about Trump. (Sidebar: Who are these people???)

4. More than half of respondents (51%) said that Trump would represent “major change” in Washington while less than half that number — 25% — said the same of Harris. Why should that worry the Harris forces? Because 63% of people said they want major change from the Biden administration and its policies.

5. The top issues on voters’ minds were the economy, abortion and immigration — in that order. On the economy, Trump has a 16-point edge over Harris on who is better equipped to handle the issue. Harris has a 17-point lead over Trump on the abortion question. Trump has an 11-point margin on immigration.

I broke down the numbers in more detail in today’s edition of The Morning.

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