Our most recent book is Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Less than 48 hours after Biden's withdrawal, Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee.
- Americans’ views of Vice President Kamala Harris have improved markedly in a Gallup poll conducted mostly before the Democratic National Convention began. Harris’ favorable and job approval ratings have been largely buoyed by Democrats’ nearly unanimous positive assessments, but independents’ ratings are also higher.
Americans’ favorable rating of Harris has increased 13 percentage points since June, to 47%, with 93% of Democrats, 41% of independents and 5% of Republicans holding positive opinions of her. The vice president’s job approval rating is also now 47%, up seven points from the previous reading in December 2023. Partisans’ job approval ratings of the vice president are in line with their favorable ratings of her.
Kamala Harris’s campaign has been trying to get voters to feel the joy. Speakers at the Democratic National Convention used the word “joy” dozens of times, including when Bill Clinton hailed Ms. Harris as “the president of joy.”
But how do voters really feel? Does the data back up the vibes?
Polls have registered a jolt of newfound happiness about the election. In July, in the week after President Biden’s decision to forgo the nomination, a New York Times/Siena College survey found that anger and resignation had been subsiding among voters of both parties, while joy had jumped.
Since then, that happiness has apparently deepened, among Democrats in particular. Times/Siena swing state polls in August found that nearly 80 percent of Democrats said they were satisfied with their choice of candidates, a stark shift from May, when just 55 percent said they were.
In general, how satisfied are you with your choice of candidates in this fall’s presidential election?
Among registered voters across six swing states
Based on New York Times/Siena College polls of registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Note: “Satisfied” includes the responses “somewhat satisfied” and “very satisfied,” and “not satisfied” includes the responses “not too satisfied” and “not at all satisfied.”
