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WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris arrived at the Democratic National Convention amid growing enthusiasm among Democrats and a steady rise in overall preference among Americans.
About half of U.S. adults, 48%, have a very or somewhat favorable view of Harris, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from 39% earlier in the summer, when President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance with former President Donald Trump ultimately led to his exit from the presidential race.
Not only is that an improvement for Harris, but it’s also an improvement from before Biden left office, when 38% of respondents said they had a favorable impression of him. It’s also slightly better than the 41% of adults who had a favorable impression of Trump.
Harris’s rise in the polls comes as more Americans form opinions about her as both Harris and the Trump campaign rush to finalize their nascent candidacies. The number of people who say they don’t know her well enough to form an opinion has dropped by half, from 12% in June to 6% now, with both campaigns seeing the same number.
The latest measurements match Americans’ views of Harris in 2021, when Biden became president and Harris became vice president. That suggests a resurgence of positive attitudes toward the vice president — the share of Americans who have a “very favorable” view of her has also increased over the same period — but that Harris may be plateauing as she approaches her previous peak.
Some groups that already generally favor Democrats have seen modest increases in preference for Harris since June. Her acceptance has risen slightly among Democrats, independents, women and people under 30. There have been no major shifts among black adults and Hispanic adults, other electoral groups Harris may need support for in November.
Half of adults under 30 have a very or somewhat favorable view of Harris in the most recent poll, up from 34% in June. Meanwhile, more young people have formed an opinion about her. The number of adults who say they don’t know has fallen from about two in 10 to about one in 10. There has been no significant change in the number of young people who have an unfavorable view of her.
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The survey of 1,164 adults was conducted Aug. 8-12, 2024, from a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of error for the full sample of respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
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