WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, Lillian Dunsmuir of Bullhead City, Arizona, had “no big thoughts” about Kamala Harris and had no opinion of the vice president. But now she likes what she sees.
“She’s funny. I think she’s very smart. She’s a good speaker,” said Dunsmuir, a 58-year-old real estate agent. “I would feel safe with her because I think she can get along with foreign leaders. I like her because she’s pro-choice, and so am I.”
Voters view Harris slightly more favorably than they did in July, shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, according to a modern poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The Democratic presidential candidate is now viewed more positively than negatively. Former President Donald Trump’s approval ratings remained stable, even though the poll was conducted before the suspected assassination attempt on the Republican candidate at his Florida golf course on Sunday.
According to the poll, about half of voters have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Harris, and 44% have a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion. That’s a slight change from behind schedule July, shortly after Biden dropped out of the race, when opinions of Harris were slightly more unfavorable than favorable. Six in 10 voters, meanwhile, have a somewhat or very unfavorable opinion of Trump, while about four in 10 have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of him.
Changes in the opinion of national figures like Biden, Trump or Harris have been uncommon in recent years. Trump’s approval ratings did not change over the summer, despite a felony conviction, a near-kidnapping by an assassin in Pennsylvania and a modern opponent in the presidential race.
But Trump has prevailed with similarly low approval ratings in the past. He won the 2016 election despite being widely unpopular, and he nearly won in 2020 under similar conditions.
The poll also found that a relatively petite share of voters – about a third – think the phrase “would change the country for the better” describes Trump or Harris exceptionally well or very well, suggesting that voters remain somewhat skeptical about their options in the race.
“Everyone talks about how polarized we are. I don’t think the election is going to solve that,” said Sean Luebbers, a 55-year-old high school history teacher in Upland, Calif., who supports Harris. “I don’t think Harris is going to solve that. I think a lot of the damage is already done, so I have no hope that the election is going to solve that. Right now, you could call it triage. We can’t make things worse.”
Still, there are other signs in the poll that Harris’s inroads into the country are continuing well. Voters are more likely to say Harris would be a good president and that the former Republican president would not be a good president. About half of voters say Harris would be a good president, while 36 percent of voters say that about Trump. And voters believe Harris has a better chance of winning the election in November, although a sizable share say the candidates are equally likely to win or that they have no opinion.
Another potentially promising finding for Harris is that independent voters view her slightly more favorably compared to Trump, although a significant share of independents view both candidates negatively. Among independents, three in 10 say they don’t know enough to judge whether Harris would make a good president, while one in 10 say the same about Trump, suggesting the vice president has more ground to make up in this regard than her rival.
Opinions about Trump are generally stronger than opinions about Harris on a number of characteristics. About 6 in 10 voters say the phrase “I would say anything to win the election” describes Trump “extremely” or “very” well. About 4 in 10 voters say that phrase describes Harris at least very well.
Voters are more likely to say that “would change the country for the better” describes Harris extremely or very well. They are also more likely to see Harris as someone who would fight for people like them, unlike Trump.
Despite Trump’s attempts to portray Harris as a faint alternative, voters are similarly likely to consider both Trump and Harris tough enough to be president.
“I think that was his biggest problem – he was a strong leader and they didn’t like that,” Pat Brumfield, a 71-year-old retired government official from Glenwood, West Virginia, said of Trump. That strength, she said, could now benefit the country.
“I think we need this,” said Brumfield, who described herself as a lifelong Democrat but said she was disillusioned with the party and would not vote for Harris. “After Biden barely got around for nearly four years, I think this has put a black eye on the whole nation.”
On both sides of the political spectrum, Republican and Democratic voters have stronger feelings about their opponent than about their own party’s nominee. For example, Democratic voters were more likely to say Trump would not change the country for the better or fight for people like them than to say Harris would do those things.
On some characteristics, Republicans are slightly more divided about Trump than Democrats are about Harris. About a third of Republican voters say the statement “I will say anything to win the election” describes Trump very or extremely well, while only 15 percent of Democratic voters say that about Harris.
Democratic voters now have a more positive attitude toward Harris than Republican voters do toward Trump. About 9 in 10 Democratic voters have a somewhat or very positive opinion of their candidate, while about 8 in 10 Republican voters say the same about Trump.
“I think she really understands how expensive child care is and how impossible it is for first-time home buyers to even buy anything,” said Chanda Harcourt, a 54-year-old writer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who supports Harris. “She really has it down.”
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Cooper reported from Phoenix.
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The poll of 1,771 registered voters was conducted September 12-16, 2024, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of error for the sample of registered voters is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
