A new poll shows that Vice President Harris is gaining popularity among voters who dislike both President Biden and former President Trump.
of New Monmouth University Poll The survey found that the number of “double haters” — voters who dislike both candidates — has been cut in half since Ms Harris joined the race. The poll found that 8% of voters have an unfavorable view of neither Ms Harris nor Mr Trump, while 17% have an unfavorable view of neither Mr Biden nor Mr Trump.
In a June poll, 54% of double-haters, who have negative opinions of both Biden and Trump, said they would support neither candidate, while 28% said they would support Biden and 19% said they would support Trump.
But the latest poll found that Harris received 53 percent of the vote among people who dislike both Biden and Trump, with 11 percent of those who dislike Biden and Trump saying they would vote for the former president and 35 percent saying they would not support either candidate.
“Removing Biden from the running and replacing him with Harris has significantly altered key metrics in this race. As we reported last month, Trump-Biden dual haters want change but are wary of overly authoritarian change. Harris appears to give much of this group the fresh perspective they crave,” Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in the polling report.
Polls also showed that Ms Harris’ candidacy caused a surge in voter enthusiasm for the presidential election, especially among Democrats. Voter enthusiasm soared from 48% in June for a rematch between Mr Trump and Mr Biden to 68% in July, when Mr Trump faced off against Ms Harris, the poll found.
Monmouth said enthusiasm has grown most among Democrats: When Biden became the presumptive nominee in June, 46% of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about a rematch between Trump and Biden. In the latest poll, 85% of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about a Trump-Harris matchup.
Democrats are also more excited about their party’s potential nominee than they were in February: 92% of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about their party’s potential nominee in July, compared with 62% who said the same in February.
The poll also found that 48% of registered voters said they would definitely or probably vote for Harris, while 43% said the same for Trump.
Harris has been gaining ground in national and battleground state polls since she launched her campaign last month, and according to The Hill/Decision Desk national polling average, based on 115 polls, she leads Trump by 1.6 percentage points.
The Monmouth University poll was conducted Aug. 8-12 among 801 voters and has a sampling margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
