Kamala Harris

Kamala Harris’ Favorability Surges 16 Points As Trump’s Attacks Fail

Vice President Kamala Harris’s favorability has surged 16 points since July giving her a 5 point lead over Trump in an NBC News poll, which they note is the largest increase for any politician since George W Bush’s jump after 9/11.

“With just over six weeks until Election Day, the poll finds Harris with a 5-point lead over former President Donald Trump among registered voters, 49% to 44%. While that result is within the margin of error, it’s a clear shift from July’s poll, when Trump was ahead by 2 points before President Joe Biden’s exit,” NBC News reported.

“But the transformation in the presidential contest goes well beyond the horse race. For starters, Harris’ favorability has jumped 16 points since July, the largest increase for any politician in NBC News polling since then-President George W. Bush’s standing surged after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”

The NBC News poll found Harris with an advantage in terms of being seen by voters “as competent and effective, as well as on having the mental and physical health to be president — a reversal from Trump’s leads on those qualities when he was matched up against Biden .

Harris still needs to make her case on the economy and inflation, as “Trump holds important advantages” on those issues, “although those leads are smaller than they were when Biden was still in the contest.

We need to look at trends for polling, so it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t a one-off.

Two days ago, Harris reached a favorability of 50 with an AP-NORC poll, “Fifty percent of American adults have a favorable view of Harris, the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found. Meanwhile, 44 percent have an unfavorable view.”

Four days ago, Gallup had Harris and Trump both still under 50% favorability.

Harris has had a lot of catching up to do as a candidate, jumping in so late but the results of her hard work are starting to be seen in polling as voters are receptive to her message.

Democrats in general need to make a stronger appeal on the economy and inflation, breaking it down in sound bites for regular voters who aren’t experts in understanding the complexity of the issues, especially given that economic experts say that ex-president Donald Trump’s plans for a second term would drive up inflation and lead to a recession by mid 2025.

The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation found Trump’s tariffs to “almost certainly increase the risk of a recession.”

In fact, 70% of top economic experts say Trump’s policies would increase inflation.

This surge for Harris is unprecedented in the last several decades, sans a terrorist attack. This is good news for the pro-democracy folks, and also a big arrow pointing at where they need to do more work. It also demonstrates that two months of personal attacks from Donald Trump and his allies have failed to change minds. It seems the more voters see Kamala Harris, the more they like her.

To comment on this story, join us on Reddit.

Follow Me
Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here. Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump. Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Connect with Sarah on Post,  Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.

Recent Posts

Kamala Harris So Deeply Psychologically Wounded Trump That He’s Refusing To Debate Again

Mary Trump explained that her uncle Donald still has not recovered from the narcissistic wound…

20 mins ago

Gretchen Whitmer Calls Trump Deranged for Saying Women Won’t Need to Think about Abortion If He Wins

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Donald Trump 'deranged' for saying women won't need to think…

3 hours ago

Supporters Walk Out On Trump Minutes Into North Carolina Speech

Reporters filmed Trump supporters walking out on him just 28 minutes into a 68 minute…

19 hours ago

Trump Melts Down And Attacks Bill Maher And Stephanie Ruhle As Election Slips Away

More proof that Trump knows that the election is slipping away from him as he…

23 hours ago

Republicans Reeling As Trump Raised Just $44.5 Million in August

the Trump campaign waited until the very last minute to file their FEC report about…

24 hours ago

Opinion: Concern about Olivia Nuzzi’s 9 Month Affair with RFK Jr is Not Sexism

Some among the political class are suggesting that focusing on Nuzzi's lack of ethical disclosure…

1 day ago