Democrats’ enthusiasm for the election has surged since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Biden as the nominee.
The latest Monmouth University Poll finds support for Harris slightly higher than it was for Biden, while the backing for Donald Trump showed little change.
“Even though it had been climbing slightly during the days when Biden was still in the race, it never topped 50%,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. “Now it’s at 68% of voters who are enthusiastic, and the biggest jump has come among Democrats, who went from below 50% to now 85%,” he said.
The poll also showed Harris also has a clear advantage over Trump in being seen as having the stamina to be president and slightly edges Trump on understanding people’s concerns, representing American values, and bringing about change.
“What she’s brought over to her camp are those people who were undecided, who wanted change, who didn’t like Biden or Trump but didn’t want too much change and Harris seems to be kind of the right mix for them at least for right now,” said Murray.
Harris’s entry into the race has improved Democratic support among younger voters compared to where President Biden stood with this group two months ago.
“It’s spurring a lot of people who were going to already vote to actually decide that they were actually going to, work on the campaign and that is really important,” he said, “particularly when you know that some of these states like Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin are decided by 50,000 votes or less.
Harris has higher favorability ratings than either Donald Trump or President Biden … that means there has been in a decline in the number of double haters … voters who dislike both nominees.