By JOSH BOAK and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Going into November’s election, neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has a decisive edge with the public on the economy, turning an issue that was once a clear strength for Trump into the equivalent of a political jump ball.

About 4 in 10 registered voters say Republican Trump would do a better job handling the economy, while a similar number say that about the Democratic vice president, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 1 in 10 voters don’t trust either candidate, and a similar share has equal faith in them.

The finding is a warning sign for Trump, who has tried to link Harris to President Joe Biden’s economic track record. The new poll suggests that Harris may be escaping some of the president’s baggage on the issue, undercutting what was previously one of Trump’s major advantages.

The economy has long been a weak issue for Biden: A separate AP-NORC poll conducted in late June, before Biden’s disastrous debate with Trump, found that about 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of his handling of the economy. Earlier this year, Americans were much more likely to say that Trump’s presidency helped the country on cost of living and job creation, compared to Biden’s.

The new poll found that the economy is one of the most important issues for about 8 in 10 voters as they consider which candidate to support, dwarfing other top issues like health care and crime.

The aftermath of inflation’s spike in 2022 to a four-decade high has pervaded this year’s presidential contest. Shoppers are upset over their grocery bills. Higher interest rates are financially squeezing the buyers of homes and motor vehicles. All that has appeared to matter more to the public than the low 4.2% unemployment rate and stock market gains.

According to the AP-NORC poll, only about one-third of voters say the state of the national economy is somewhat or very good, although they’re more optimistic about their own situation, with about 6 in 10 voters saying their household’s finances are somewhat or very good. Both of those numbers have remained steady over the course of the year, despite falling inflation.

The candidates have clashing ideas about how best to straighten out the economy, giving voters a stark choice that might hint at how partisan identity increasingly informs views of the economy and policy. But neither campaign has fully explained how its plans would be implemented. Harris insists her plans would be fully funded and not add to the deficit, while Trump’s team assumes — in defiance of most economic models — that growth will be high enough to offset the cost.

Mark Carlough, 33, who works on medical records in Philadelphia, plans to vote for Harris and says he believes that the taxes on imports proposed by Trump would hurt most consumers.

“The tariffs would be horrible for the economy,” he said.

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Richard Tunnell, 32, of Huntsville, Texas, plans to vote for Trump, just as he did in 2020. He’s not sure if the Republican has an advantage over Harris on the economy, but he noted that Trump has been a great businessman who remains one of the “richest men on the planet” even after filing for bankruptcy multiple times.

”I believe this country needs someone to reach their hand in it and work it like a game of Monopoly and that person is Donald Trump,” said Tunnell, a military veteran on disability.

Chantelle Breaux, 38, a stay-at-home parent from Lafayette, Louisiana, feels neither candidate has much to offer on the economy. She doesn’t plan to vote — unless a candidate more to her liking enters the race.

“Kamala wants to put a Band-Aid where major surgery needs to be done on this economy,” said Breaux. “Trump wants to run the country as if it’s a business, but it isn’t a business that is going to support all of the people.”

Former President Trump suggests growth would come from tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy leading to more investment, while a universal tariff of as much as 20% would direct that investment to building U.S. factories.

Harris has campaigned on more benefits for the middle class to be funded by higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, saying that would help to contain costs and deliver growth. Her team has warned that Trump’s tariffs would lead to higher prices and worsen underlying inflation challenges.

The economy is one of many issues shaping public sentiment as the campaigns seek to turn out their voters. More than half of voters said health care was a top concern, while roughly half said that about crime, immigration, abortion policy and gun policy. Only about one-third called climate change one of the most important issues for their vote, and about one-quarter said that about the war between Israel and Hamas.

Trump and Harris are evenly matched in the poll on who would better handle crime and the war in Gaza. But the issues soon splinter in ways that reflect the distinct priorities of Republicans and Democrats.

Trump has an advantage over Harris on whom voters trust to better handle immigration. This issue was a problem for Biden, as well: Illegal immigration and crossings at the U.S. border with Mexico have been a challenge during much of his administration. Republicans are more likely to care about immigration, the issue where Trump has a clear upper hand.

Harris fares better than Trump when it comes to issues that Democrats care more about, including gun policy, health care, abortion policy and climate change.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris listens to a parent’s survivor story as she joins Oprah Winfrey at Oprah’s Unite for America Live Streaming event Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024 in Farmington Hills, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Rosamaria Nunez, a 68-year-old retiree in San Antonio, Texas, identified gun violence as the most important issue facing the country, saying it became personal when her grandson called her last year to be picked up because of a school lockdown.

Nunez said she plans to vote for Harris, saying: “First of all, she’s a gun owner, so she can relate to the safety issue. She seems like she’s more in tune with a real person than Trump is.”

Overall, voters see high stakes for the presidential election’s impact on the country’s future, the economy, and the future of democracy in the U.S., but they’re less likely to think the election will have an impact on them personally. About 8 in 10 voters say the election will have “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of impact on the country’s future. About three-quarters say the election will have a similar impact on the nation’s economy and the future of democracy in the U.S.

By contrast, half of voters say the election will have at least “quite a bit” of impact on them personally.

The poll of 1,771 registered voters was conducted September 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for registered voters is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and FARNOUSH AMIRI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation’s presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It’s unclear, though, how much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference.

The efforts come after an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in July, and after Secret Service agents arrested a man with a rifle hiding on the golf course at Trump’s Florida club over the weekend. The suspect in Florida apparently also sought to assassinate the GOP presidential nominee.

Democrats and Republicans have been in talks with the agency this week to find out whether additional resources are needed. And the House on Friday is voting on legislation that would require the agency to use the same standards for assigning agents to major presidential and vice presidential candidates as they do for sitting presidents and vice presidents.

“Luck cannot be a strategy by the Secret Service to have stopped these attempts,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who himself was shot in 2017 while at a baseball practice with colleagues. “The Secret Service has to do better.”

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With the election rapidly approaching and Congress headed out of town before October, lawmakers are rushing to figure out exactly what might help, hoping to assess the agency’s most pressing needs while ensuring that they are doing everything they can in an era where political violence has become more commonplace and every politician is a target.

“We have a responsibility here in Congress to get down to the bottom of this to figure out why these things are happening and what we can do about it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday. “This is not a partisan issue. We have both parties working on it.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that “we’ve got to get the Secret Service into a position where its protectees are shielded in the most maximum way possible.”

After the July shooting, House Republicans created a bipartisan task force focused on investigating the security failures of that day and ensuring it doesn’t happen again. Johnson said this week that the task force would expand its scope to include what happened in Florida, even though the Secret Service successfully apprehended the suspect before anyone was hurt. The House could vote soon on expanding the panel’s mandate.

In a letter earlier this month, the Secret Service told lawmakers that a funding shortfall was not the reason for lapses in Trump’s security when when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened fire. But Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said this week that the agency had “immediate needs” and that he’s talking to Congress.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the Democratic chairman of the spending subcommittee that oversees the Secret Service, said Congress wants to make sure that if it is spending new dollars, “it’s going to help the situation between now and the inauguration.”

Murphy said new money could go toward technology like drones, partnerships with other agencies that could provide immediate assistance and overtime pay for agents. It would likely be added to a stopgap spending bill that Congress will consider next week to keep the government running, either in the form of allowing the Secret Service to spend money more quickly or providing them with emergency dollars.

“I’m confident we are going to take care of this one way or the other,” Murphy said.

FILE – Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the Secret Service, speaks during a news conference by law enforcement officials, Sept. 16, 2024, at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in West Palm Beach, Fla. Listening in are, from left, U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe, for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri of the FBI Miami Field Office, and Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

The agency says it’s doing what it can. Secret Service officials have told lawmakers behind closed doors that they have already increased Trump’s security to the same level as Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

“There are a handful of specialized assets only the commander in chief gets, but the rest of his protection is at the same level,” Spencer Love, a Democratic spokesperson for the House task force, said after the agency briefed members on Wednesday.

That could render the GOP House legislation unnecessary, at least for now. But lawmakers have said they want to make sure that Trump is protected after two people have tried to end his life.

“I encourage every single one of my colleagues, regardless of their political views, regardless of whether they like or dislike one of the candidates, to recognize the fundamental fact that we have a responsibility to ensure their safety and well-being, and let the American people decide who will be president, not an assassin and not an assassin’s bullet,” said Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, one of the sponsors of the bill that the House will vote on Friday.

In the Senate, Florida Sen. Rick Scott has also introduced a bill mandating similar protection for presidential candidates. Both bills would also require regular reports to Congress on the status of the candidates’ protection.

Republicans have argued that an overhaul of the agency, and potentially reallocating agents, should be a higher priority than funding.

Scalise noted this week that the Secret Service has received regular budget increases in recent years.

“It’s not about the money,” Scalise said, but “what they’re doing with the money.”

Rep. Mike Waltz, a Republican on the task force, said he pushed Secret Service officials Wednesday on what new resources they needed and they said they were still evaluating.

“I think it’s irresponsible to just throw money at it when they’re not even sure what exactly they need and how quickly they can get it,” the Florida lawmaker said, adding that he hopes the agency shifts to a more threat-focused approach to protecting officials and candidates.

It’s unclear, though, if Republicans would fight a funding boost.

“It’s been made implicitly clear that they’re stretched pretty thin,” said Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, a member of the task force. “I know that there’s some folks who see a $3 billion budget and think that should be enough. But when you look at where all of the bodies have to go, that’s a problem.”