Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris is enjoying her highest approval ratings in more than two years, a new opinion poll has revealed.
The vice president, who is currently serving under President Joe Biden, is hoping for a promotion when voters hit the polls in November’s election. And with just weeks to go, a new survey has showed how her approval rating has soared compared to opinion polls taken to assess her performance earlier in her career.
The clock is ticking down to the November 5 polling day, and surveys on voter intentions have painted a confusing picture so far. Trump appears to be performing well, even in typically Democratic states, such as New York.
However, most polls suggest that it is Harris who has a narrow lead in the race. Other polls suggest the election is simply too close to call in some battleground states, with a recent survey suggesting both Harris and Trump were tied in a dead heat in Pennsylvania.
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However, a poll taken purely to assess Harris’ popularity, without reference to Trump or anyone else for comparative purposes, shows how Harris has been steadily growing her approval score over recent years.
The straightforward poll—entitled simply “Do Americans approve or disapprove of Kamala Harris?”—shows how voters are becoming increasingly impressed with the her. The same question has been asked repeatedly, in various polls by various pollsters, and 538 has compiled the data in order to build up a picture of how voters feel about Harris.
On January 3, 2022, some 40.1 percent approved of her, while 51.2 percent said they disapproved; meaning far more people (more than half those polled) didn’t think much of Harris’ performance in her role.
A year later the result had shifted very little, with a January 2, 2023, poll showing that while slightly more people (41.7 percent) now approved of her, slightly more (51.7 percent) disapproved of her too.
But her team were likely more worried by the results a year later, that is: January in this year. A poll on January 3 showed that her approval rating had plunged to just 37.4 percent, while her disapproval rating now stood at 55.5 percent. And her popularity then hung somewhere below 40 percent for months.
On July 1 this year, her rating had crawled up to 39.4 percent (and the disapproval score had dropped to 49.4 percent). But all that began to change when Biden was forced to stand aside on July 21, amid fears for his health and cognitive abilities during the grueling campaign, and Harris subsequently found herself at the top of the Democratic ticket.
After a short, initial drop in support, by August 1 Harris’ approval rating finally hit the 40s, with an approval rating of 40.5 percent. Her disapproval rating had dropped too, down to 50.6 percent.
Over the following months of the campaign her figures improved steadily, with 538’s chart plotting the results to show a clear upward trajectory. She achieved her highest result in more than two years, with a 44.9 percent approval rating last Wednesday (September 25), while her disapproval rating had fallen to 47.6 percent. If the trend continues, the two lines will intersect as more people approve, rather than disapprove, of her.
However, last week’s ratings still fall short of the popularity she enjoyed back on May 11, 2021, when 48.1 percent approved; far higher than the 37.4 percent who disapproved.
Another popularity-style poll tells the same story. Titled, “Do Americans have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Kamala Harris?”, the graph shows how on February 1, 2021, some 48.4 percent held a favorable view of her, while 40.5 percent felt unfavorably toward her.
The favorable line gradually dropped as the unfavorable line rose, and by 2020 more people held unfavorable opinions toward her. But the picture changed after she took over the Democratic campaign this summer. And by last week (September 24), the lines had crossed over again, with slightly more people holding a favorable opinion (47.3 percent) than those who held an unfavorable one (46.5 percent).
When the same graph was plotted by 538 for Harris’ Republican presidential rival (“Do Americans have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump?”) over the same timescale, the results appear much less dramatic.
The two lines on the chart, created by the approval and disapproval ratings, are more stable with flatter lines. More people have always held an unfavorable opinion than a favorable one, according to the chart.
On January 30, 2021, some 38.6 percent of those asked said that they held a favorable opinion of Trump, while 57 percent said they held an unfavorable view of him. That reading was taken after Biden was inaugurated in January, while Trump sparked outrage after being accused of supporting the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol by rioters, furious he had lost the election.
He managed to improve his results slightly as the years passed, and the most recent survey taken on September 27 showed that 42.9 percent now held a favorable opinion of Trump, while 52.6 percent held an unfavorable view.
Biden’s own popularity rating sees him fare worse than either Trump or Harris. Back on February 1, 2021, some 53.8 percent viewed him favorably, while just 40.3 percent held an unfavorable view. However, his popularity then waned and by September of that year, the disapproval votes outnumbered the approval votes for the first time.
The most recent results, taken last week on September 27, show a complete reversal of fortune, with just 40.4 percent having a favorable opinion of him, while 54.5 percent hold an unfavorable one.
Newsweek has reached out by email to the White House, and the campaign teams for Harris and Trump, seeking comment.
