Harris Widens Lead With Women Voters in New Poll, Helping Her Maintain National Edge

The vice president did not get a statistically significant post-convention polling bounce, but maintains a lead over the former president.

AP
Vice President Harris and President Trump. AP

Vice President Harris is seeing a spike in support from women voters in the wake of her Democratic National Convention at Chicago last month, though that newfound endearment has yet to yield a statistically significant bump in national support, according to new polling. She is maintaining her lead over President Trump as enthusiasm among her base outpaces his. 

According to a poll from ABC News and Ipsos released on Sunday, the vice president is holding on to her lead with registered and likely voters — a lead she captured shortly after President Biden left the race and she became the presumptive nominee. 

Among likely voters, Ms. Harris leads Trump by six points, 52 percent to 46 percent. She is also favored by registered voters and all adults by a margin of 50 percent to 46 percent among both demographics. Before the convention last month, she led Trump by statistically the same margin among registered voters, 50 percent to 45 percent. 

Her ability to maintain a lead in the race has been made possible mostly by her strength among women voters, who now favor Ms. Harris by a margin of 54 percent to 41 percent — a 13-point advantage that is more than double the six-point advantage she had with women before the DNC. 

Trump leads Ms. Harris among men by five points, 46 percent to 51 percent. 

She still has some work to do, however, despite her strong polling among women. According to the Center for American Women and Politics, Ms. Harris has still not caught up to Mr. Biden’s 2020 female vote share. Four years ago, Mr. Biden won 57 percent of votes from women, compared to Trump who won just 42 percent. 

Ms. Harris is viewed by those who responded to the poll as a more competent, mentally and physically fit potential president compared to Trump, and her campaign is viewed as being more effective and organized than her opponent’s. In total, 56 percent say Ms. Harris’s campaign is doing either an excellent or good job, compared to 41 percent who say the same of the Trump campaign. Even 24 percent of Republicans say Ms. Harris is running an effective campaign for the White House.

The poll was conducted between August 23 and August 27, immediately following the DNC. The survey’s margin of error is two points. 

Not all pollsters were impressed with the ABC survey, however. The head pollster at Rasmussen Reports, Mark Mitchell, says the ABC survey wildly overestimates Ms. Harris’s favorability numbers while discounting Trump’s.

In the ABC survey, Ms. Harris has a net favorability of three points, 46 percent to 43 percent, while Trump has a net negative favorable rating of 25 points, 33 percent to 58 percent. A FiveThirtyEight polling average of favorability ratings finds that Trump has just a net negative favorable rating of about ten points, while Ms. Harris has a net negative favorable rating of about seven points.

“ABC News put out a poll that gave Harris a favorability advantage 19 POINTS bigger than the rest of the polling industry,” Mr. Mitchell wrote on X. “And to think, an ABC employee accused US of having undisclosed conflicts!”

Ms. Harris’s candidacy could be buoyed by her choice for vice president, Governor Walz, who is seen both as more likable and more prepared for the presidency than his Republican counterpart, Senator Vance. Mr. Walz holds a favorable rating of 42 percent and an unfavorable rating of just 31 percent. Before the convention, his favorable rating was 39 percent and his unfavorable rating of 30 percent — a net gain of two points of favorability among voters. 

Mr. Vance, on the other hand, has seen his unfavorable ratings climb, though only slightly. Just 32 percent of voters have a positive view of him compared to 44 percent who have an unfavorable view. On preparedness to be president should the worst happen, 49 percent believe Mr. Walz could serve effectively as commander-in-chief compared to just 41 percent who say the same of Mr. Vance. 

The Trump campaign on Sunday called the ABC–Ipsos survey “trash.” 

“It cracks me up how certain media outlets always try to promote Kamala Harris and knock down President Trump, even for the smallest of small details,” Trump’s senior advisor, Jason Miller, wrote on X, referring to ABC New’s use of graphics showing the “likely voter” margin instead of the “registered voter” margin. “The ABC poll is trash.”


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