Kamala Harris’ Support Among Republicans Almost Doubles: NYT-Siena Poll

The proportion of self-identified Republicans who say they plan to vote for Kamala Harris in November has nearly doubled over the past month according to a major new survey from The New York Times/Siena College.
It found nine percent of likely voters who describe themselves as Republican plan to back the Democratic candidate in November, up from five percent in the last New York Times/Siena College poll a month earlier. By contrast just three percent of Democratic identifying voters said they will vote for Donald Trump, while 96 percent said they support Harris.
A number of prominent Republicans have said they will vote for Harris over Trump, including former vice president Dick Cheney, who in September said: “As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our constitution. That is why I will be casting my vote for vice president Kamala Harris.”
September also saw 100 ex-Republican members of Congress as well as officials from the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump administrations sign a joint letter endorsing Harris and claiming the Republican nominee has “contempt for the norms of decent, ethical and lawful behavior.”
Overall The New York Times/Siena College poll of 3,385 likely voters, conducted between September 29 and October 6, put Harris on 49 percent of the vote against 46 percent for Trump. The poll came with a 2.4 point margin of error. Notably Harris could win the popular vote and still lose to Trump overall thanks to the Electoral College system, as Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Newsweek contacted the Kamala Harris and Donald Trump presidential election campaigns for comment via email on Tuesday outside of regular office hours.
Appearing on Preet Bharara’s Stay Tuned with Preet podcast, David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and Trump critic, said some conservatives would vote for Harris as they fear what a second Trump term would mean for the Constitution and America’s global position.
He said: “Dick Chaney being in the coalition is a very specific response to the threat of Donald Trump. Chaney is doing what a lot of my friends are doing, what I’m doing, saying we’re not going to like 80 percent of the domestic agenda of the Harris administration, we’re going to swallow that with our eyes open that we’re not going to like a lot of it because its more important to preserve the constitution and because we trust her to do a better job of maintaining American leadership in the world which is for us issue number one.”
Frum added: “I do think we’re living through a moment like 1968-74 when the parties change who their voters are … we are seeing a certain type of voter with a lot to lose migrating into the Democratic coalition because it offers stability and a certain kind of voter with less to lose and more alienation migrating out of the Democratic coalition because they don’t feel attached enough to the society and are excited by the Republican promise to take more risks with America.”
Harris has also been endorsed by the children of a number of prominent Republicans, including Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline Giuliani, Kellyanne Conway’s daughter, Claudia Conway, and Elon Musk’s estranged daughter, Vivian Wilson.
However Trump has won the backing of former Democrats including ex-congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Speaking at a National Guard Association conference in August Gabbard said: “This administration has us facing multiple wars on multiple fronts in regions around the world and closer to the brink of nuclear war than we ever have been before.
“This is one of the main reasons why I’m committed to doing all that I can to send President Trump back to the White House, where he can once again serve us as our commander in chief. Because I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war.”
On Monday betting platform Polymarket gave Trump a 53.3 percent chance of securing the presidency in November against 46.1 percent for Harris.