with President Biden out of the 2024 race now we're taking a look at what the polls show in a head-to-head matchup between vice president kamla Harris and former president Trump NBC News National political correspondent Steve coraki joins me now to kind of walk us through it all Steve yeah Lester I mean that is the Strategic question for Democrats they were concerned about Joe Biden's ultimate ability to win this election if they do end up with kamla Harris as their presidential candidate now does it change the basic political realities they were worried about so look at it this way this is the average of all of the national polls conducted since that debate at the end of June that started all of this and you see the average Biden trailing Trump by two points nationally of course very significant not just that Biden was behind but if you went back four years to 2020 there really was no point in the entire campaign when Biden trailed Trump in the national average so that made that even more significant but okay since that debate these polls have also started to ask well what about kamla Harris is the Democratic nominee offering respondents that choice as well in the polls that have tested both of them here's the average for Harris versus Trump not much different Harris does do a point better than Biden 45 goes to 46 in the average Trump stays at 47 so at least at the beginning if Democrats do go with Harris they'd be taking a candidate trailing by two on average replacing with a candidate who Trails by one on average of course the question is the introduction of KLA Harris as a presidential poal candidate the Democratic Convention the new attention on her would that help those numbers would that improve them conversely would that hurt those numbers potentially If the roll out doesn't go that well those are some of the variables though but that's the starting point on head-to-head and we also look at the basic image of each candidate when we ask the question favorable or unfavorable view do you have again the average for Joe Biden has been very bad 36% favorable 57% unfavorable now KLA Harris where does she clock in here little bit little bit better but not much 36 to 38 on the favorable side and the unfavorable comes down 57 to 52 meanwhile Donald Trump who she'd like to run against now you see where he stands these numbers are a bit better for him than they've been in the past 41% favorable 55 unfavorable and again if whether it's KLA Harris or if it happens to be anybody else whoever emerges as the Democratic candidate just the basic challenge they're facing is this here is the road to 270 27 electoral votes and you see the six core swing States right here that are expected to decide the presidency you see Harris would have to win a number of those States here but the other challenge for her and something that drove Biden from this race is that Democrats were starting to get indications outside of these Battleground states of unexpected trouble in places like Virginia New Hampshire Maine in the in the popular vote in Maine they give out electoral votes by congressional district there even potentially in a state like min Minnesota so for Harris or whoever the Democratic nominee becomes the two challenges are first of all Shore up States like that that Democrats weren't expecting to have to sweat over and then get to work in those Battleground States again all those Battleground States in 2020 where Joe Biden States Lester thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media