Revealed: Data show how Kamala Harris turned her image around — and shook up the race
Vice President Kamala Harris long suffered from poor approval ratings and a general lack of interest from the public. But in just a couple of weeks, with her as the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party she has totally turned that around, and it's reflected in the data, Aaron Blake wrote for The Washington Post on Monday.
"A long-unpopular vice president has gotten a second look from voters now that the spotlight is trained on her. And at least for now, the polls suggest that Americans are both warming to her and liking her significantly more than they like Biden," wrote Blake. "Multiple polls in recent days tell that tale."
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll, for example, puts Harris at 43 percent favorable — an eight-point jump from the previous month, but also, just as importantly, 11 points higher than President Joe Biden was in the last poll. A new Wall Street Journal poll shows her at 46 points. And perhaps most dramatic, Morning Consult shows her jumping 12 points to an outright majority favorable rating.
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A new NYT/Siena poll has even further data that shows good news for Harris, wrote Blake.
"While just 74 percent of Biden 2020 voters liked him, 88 percent of Biden 2020 voters liked Harris. And the poll showed her being viewed favorably by about twice as many people who didn’t vote in 2020 (46 percent vs. 24 percent) and who currently support a candidate besides her, Donald Trump or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (33 percent vs. 17 percent)."
This would be essential to consolidating the coalition that beat Trump last time.
The election is by no means assured for Democrats, Blake cautioned, as Trump's favorable numbers aren't much different and head-to-head polls show a close race. But this puts Democrats in a much better position than they were when Biden dropped his re-election bid.
"Democrats looked like they were going to have to win lots of voters who didn’t like Biden and who didn’t seem to have much reason to vote blue, beyond dislike of Trump," he concluded. "Many of those voters today see a more viable option in Harris."