US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took the lead over Republican Donald Trump in Iowa, a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows.The poll of 808 likely voters, who were surveyed Oct. 28-31, showed Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters, just days before a high-stakes election that appears deadlocked in key battleground states.The poll shows that women – particularly those who are older or who are politically independent – are driving the shift toward Harris, in a state that Trump easily won in 2016 and 2020.Independent voters, who had consistently supported Trump in the leadup to this election, now break for Harris. That is driven by the strength of independent women, who back Harris by a 28-point margin, while independent men support Trump, but by a smaller margin.Similarly, senior voters who are 65 and older favor Harris. But senior women support her by a more than 2-to-1 margin, 63% to 28%, while senior men favor her by just 2 percentage points, 47% to 45%.Whoever wins Iowa will collect six Electoral College votes. A total of 270 are needed to capture the White House. Both parties have been concentrating their efforts during the closing days of their campaigns on ‘battleground’ states such as North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
