Vice President Kamala Harris has broken President Joe Biden''s record in a new poll, giving Democrats their best chance of defeating Donald Trump yet.

A new Morning Consult poll released Thursday shows Harris leading former President Trump 46 percent to 45 percent—the highest level of support recorded for Democrats since tracking began in 2022. She also leads Trump 40 percent to 38 percent among independent voters.

"Her level of support at the start of her campaign exceeds the highest level of support we gauged for Biden," the pollsters said.

The survey results are the first from Morning Consult since Biden announced Sunday that he would withdraw from the presidential race and endorse Harris as the Democratic nominee. The pollsters update their 2024 tracking page on a weekly basis.

Harris has proven to be a unifying force for the Democratic Party. The percentage of Democrats has more than doubled since last month, with nearly 2 in 3 now saying they support Harris at the top of the ticket.

Recent polls show that she''s helped close the "enthusiasm gap" that has plagued Democrats this election cycle. Not only has excitement jumped among Democratic voters, but they are also now more likely than their Republican counterparts—27 percent to 24 percent—to say they''re "much more motivated" to participate in the political processes this year.

Harris has also helped Democrats with their third-party problem. Biden''s campaign had faced concerns that independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy could draw voters away from the president. But, fewer voters now indicate they''ll back a third-party candidate.

Throughout the tracking period, the percentage of voters who said they would pick someone else when faced with a Biden vs. Trump matchup hovered between 8 and 11 percent. On Thursday, only 5 percent said they''d select a third-party candidate if the ballot choice were between Harris and Trump.

Trump remains more popular than Harris, with a favorability rating of 46 percent. The vice president has a favorability rating of 43 percent.

Trump''s VP pick, Senator JD Vance, also saw a boost in popularity. The share of Trump''s 2020 voters with favorable opinions of Vance nearly doubled, from 38 percent to 66 percent, before and after Trump made his running mate announcement at the Republican National Convention.

Congressional Democrats, however, are more popular than their Republican counterparts, with a 43 percent favorability rating compared to Republicans'' 41 percent.

The economy remains the top voting issue, with 76 percent of Americans ranking it as "very important," followed by national security at 68 percent. Sixty-six percent of voters also described jobs, health care, Social Security and Medicare as "very important" to their vote.

The national survey was conducted between July 22 and 24 among 11,297 registered voters. Its margin of error is +/- 1 percentage point.

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