(The Center Square) – Polling averages show the nation’s two presidential candidates locked in a dead heat in Pennsylvania ahead of a highly-anticipated debate Tuesday.
The one and only scheduled event will offer Vice President Kamala Harris the biggest national spotlight – since the Democratic National Convention in August – to convince voters she’s capable of cooling economic pressures and managing volatile foreign conflicts.
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will get a chance to distance himself from a conservative policy agenda, Project 2025, brainstormed by the Heritage Foundation and never officially endorsed by the candidate himself. The campaign’s official platform is Agenda 47.
It’s unclear how much the debate will move the needle for voters. As of Friday, the RealClear Politics polling average shows Trump and Harris dead even at 47.6% each. The average includes the results of seven surveys conducted between Aug. 13 and Sept. 6.
Trump led in three of the matchups by as much as 2 points. A Bloomberg poll conducted between Aug. 23 and Aug. 26 – the three days immediately following the convention – showed Harris up 4 points.
Three polls from CBS, The Hill/Emerson and CNN have the candidates tied.
On this date in 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton led Trump by 6.2 points. In 2020, now-President Joe Biden was 4.3 points ahead of Trump.
