Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump: Five things to watch for in the presidential debate

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

71% : The spotlight will shine particularly brightly on Harris, since Trump is better known to voters.
68% : But while the vice-president is now ahead of Trump by 2.9 percentage points nationally, according to the Financial Times' poll tracker, her lead has narrowed slightly in recent days and the presidential race remains extremely tight.
50% : The debate "is a very big moment" for Trump that he needs to make the best use of, said Republican strategist Kevin Madden.
44% : "Noel said he will also be watching to see if Trump deploys any new tactics against his opponent.
37% : Harris and Trump will lay out their competing economic visions for how to bring down the country's high cost of living.
35% : Trump wants to lower taxes, beyond extending the cuts he passed in 2017, boost energy production, slash government spending and enlist Elon Musk to pursue aggressive deregulation.
30% : For most of this year, voters have said they trust Trump more with the economy, but last month an FT-Michigan Ross poll showed that this had changed, with more of them trusting Harris on the issue.
30% : He will also try to focus the blame on Harris, who was tasked by the president with addressing the root causes of migration from Latin America.Republican strategist Doug Heye said "if [Trump] can be focused" when Harris says she will do something on any topic, including border security, all he "has to say is, 'you've been there for three and a half years -- why haven't you done anything yet?'"
29% : Both candidates will be trying to do a simple thing during the debate: to define Harris for a voting public that knows much less about her than about Trump.
27% : Trump has been on the defensive on abortion rights and is struggling to define his position as he attempts to balance the strongly held views of the religious anti-abortion voters who form a core of his base without alienating moderate and independent voters who tend to support reproductive rights.
23% : Trump, fresh from a legal victory after the sentencing in his "hush money" case was delayed until after the election, in turn has accused Harris of being a "radical" prosecutor and "weak-on-crime district attorney", and is likely to repeat the charges during the debate.
22% : Harris and Trump will face questions from ABC anchors Linsey Davis and David Muir, with two minutes to answer and two minutes for rebuttal, with an additional follow-up minute.
19% : Trump is expected to keep blaming the Biden administration for the high cost of living, while Harris will emphasise falling inflation and the millions of jobs created while she and Biden have been in office.
13% : Harris has made her experience as a prosecutor a central part of her political identity, and has been more willing than Biden to go after Trump on the campaign trail for his criminal convictions.
10% : Trump has tried to paint Harris as a radical communist and a policy flip-flopper.
10% : Harris and Trump will be trying to capitalise on their positions on two totemic issues for US voters: abortion and immigration.

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