Jul 29, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris has seen a significant boost in her approval ratings ever since she became the presumptive Democratic 2024 nominee, while Donald Trump‘s has fallen, according to a poll.

An ABC News/Ipsos survey of 1,200 adults released on Sunday showed that Harris’ favorability rating stands at 43 percent, 8 points up from the 35 percent favorability rating she recorded in a previous poll conducted before President Joe Biden ended his 2024 campaign.

The number of people who hold an unfavorable view of the vice president has also fallen from 46 percent recorded in the previous poll published last week, to 42 percent in Sunday’s survey.

By comparison, Trump’s favorability rating has fallen 4 points between the two surveys from 40 percent to 36. The previous poll was conducted in the week after Trump was confirmed as the GOP’s 2024 nominee at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and following the assassination attempt against the former president in Pennsylvania.

The poll is the latest indication of enthusiasm behind Harris’ White House bid after Biden ended his reelection campaign following weeks of pressure in the wake of his languished CNN debate performance on June 27.

Biden, 81, had already faced concerns that he was too old to run for a second term, with multiple polls suggesting voters were not enthused that the 2024 election was going to be a rematch between the president and the 78-year-old Trump.

After Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, multiple current and former Democratic figures have also backed the vice president against Trump.

Harris has also seen a surge of fundraising, with her campaign reporting it has raised more than $200 million in its first week, around two-thirds of which came from first-time donors.

Elsewhere, the ABC News/Ipsos poll shows nearly nine in 10 Democrats (88 percent) are expressing enthusiasm for Harris’ campaign as well as 70 percent of Black voters.

Harris has also seen a major rise in the number of independent voters who hold a favorable view of her, up from 28 percent last week to 42 percent in the latest poll.

The poll showed that Trump’s favorability rating among the potentially key independent demographic dropped from 35 percent last week to 27 percent in Sunday’s survey.

When contacted for comment, Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung referred to a recent Telegraph/Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll which showed Trump beating Harris in several swing states.

Harris’ office has been contacted for comment via email.

After Biden ended his reelection campaign on July 21, Trump became the oldest presidential nominee in U.S. history. If Trump wins November’s election, he could overtake Biden as the oldest ever sitting U.S. president during his second term.

The previous ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that 15 percent of Americans held unfavorable views of both Trump and Biden.

Now the race is likely to be between Harris and Trump, only seven percent of Americans say they dislike both candidates.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,200 U.S. between July 26-27. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-approval-rating-trump-ipsos-1931289