Kamala Harris approval rating high among Dems but not elsewhere: exclusive poll
WASHINGTON – Despite efforts by the White House to rehabilitate Vice President Kamala Harris's image, she continues to struggle winning over Americans outside of the Democratic tent, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll shows.
The national survey found 52% of registered voters disapprove of her job performance as President Joe Biden's vice president.
About 36% approve of how she’s handling the role, trailing Biden's almost equally dismal 41% approval rating.
Asked to weigh Harris’ personal popularity the numbers don’t get much better.
Roughly 38% of Americans have a favorable view of Harris, lagging behind Biden, who is viewed favorably by 41% of registered voters. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, was viewed favorably by 40% of respondents in the poll.
Democratic allies warned Biden's team a year ago about the need to boost Harris and clap back against the withering effectiveness of Republican attacks.
Now with the general election informally underway at a time when the age and acuity of both presumptive presidential nominees is being driven to the forefront, experts say questions about Harris ? and eventually Trump's running mate ? will only get louder.
“Usually, it's a secondary and muted discussion about vice presidents. This time, it's going to be almost a parallel and loud discussion in comparison,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
"I think she's very smart. I think she's confident," said Democrat Alissa Morris, 49, an administrator of a developmental disabilities program in Ronkonkoma, New York, who plans to vote for Biden. "She knows what she's doing. I think her role that she's in now does not take full advantage of her abilities."
Republican Rose Marie Livings isn't as forgiving. She pointed to Biden tapping Harris to lead efforts to address migration at the U.S.-Mexico border amid the ongoing migrant crisis.
"She's pathetic," Livings, 87, a retired public school administrator in Vero Beach, Florida, said in an interview. "She was supposed to deal with the border."
More than half don't view Harris as qualified to be president
Harris’ poll numbers have long been a sore spot for the White House and Democrats, who often say she is unfairly judged as the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the office.
The vice president has faced detractors who say she's failed to define an effective role in the administration. Some of her assignments have included the thorny tasks of solving Central American migration along the southern border and ensuring voting rights amid a barrage of new state election laws.
Harris has shined as the White House's culture warrior-in-chief, leaning into progressive causes such as slamming Florida’s education guidelines targeting Black history last summer. Recently, the vice president has emerged as one of the administration's leading voices pushing Israel to do more to limit Palestinian casualties in its war against Hamas and to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.
She has also led the White House's charge on restoring abortion access after the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. Harris on Thursday is set to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota, marking the first visit by a president or vice president to a clinic that provides abortion services.
Harris hasn't publicly sweated poll numbers or GOP-fueled attacks, saying in a recent interview: "I am ready to serve. There’s no question about that."
This latest poll, however, show voters still have their doubts. And a significant portion lack of confidence in her ability to take over should Biden be unable to lead: 54% of survey respondents said Harris isn't qualified to serve as president versus 38% who believe she has what it takes.
Republican Nathan Conder, 59, a retired veteran, said she "just seems invisible to me most of the time."
"There doesn't seem to be an agenda at all, except for waiting for her turn to be the president and if something were to happen to Joe Biden," said Conder, who lives in Freeport, Illinois.
The Trump campaign and its allies have sought to seize on Harris’ unpopularity and concerns about her ability to serve as president.
In a television ad released last week by MAGA Inc., a super Pac supporting Trump, a narrator asked: "We can all see Joe Biden's weakness. If Biden wins, can he even survive till 2029?" The narrator added: "The real question is: Can we?" The ad then shows a clip of Harris laughing.
While a whopping 92% of Republican voters said Harris is not qualified to be president, doubts are also within key voting blocs the Biden campaign will need in the fall: 56% of independents; 37% of African Americans; and 48% of Hispanic voters said she isn't qualified.
"I don't even know why she was selected," said Sandra Luby, 75, a former special ed teacher who hails from Bainbridge, Ohio.
"I think the only reason she was selected is because she's Black, to be honest with you, and she's a woman," the self-described independent told USA TODAY.
"Is she articulate? Yeah. She’s relatively articulate and so I suppose that counts," Luby added. "But we're at that point where that's the only thing that counts? That’s sad."
The poll's findings are bound to infuriate Harris's most fervent backers, who argue she has faced a steeper and nastier hill to climb as the first Black woman and first South Asian woman to have what historians often call Washington's most thankless gig.
"I think if anything happened to Biden, I think she would be able to step in very, very nicely, and I don't think there would be any qualms," said Democrat Cynthia Lowe, 67, a school bus driver who lives in Gladstone, Oregon.
"Given that I don't know who else would be a better candidate at this point in time than I would have to say yes, she probably is the best that I'm aware of.”
Queen of the Dems: VP scores big with Black voters
The poll isn’t all doom and gloom for Harris, who is immensely popular among fellow Democrats.
Overall, 76% of voters who identified as Democrats approve of Harris' job performance which slightly trails the 84% of Democratic voters who approve of Biden's performance in office.
Harris gets her highest marks from Black voters, who at 51% approve of her job performance, compared to 33% of white voters and 39% of Hispanic voters, according to the USA TODAY/Suffolk University survey.
In terms of her overall popularity, she is viewed favorably by 59% of Black voters, while only 34% of white voters and 37% of Hispanic voters said they viewed Harris favorably.
"As I say, she's queen Kamala when it comes to Democrats," Paleologos, the Suffolk researcher, said. "Independents, you know, she's quite suitable Kamala. Among Republicans, she's court jester Kamala."
Harris’ approval rating is just 28% among independent voters and 4% among Republicans.
Still, when voters were asked to say a word to describe Harris, 46% had positive responses such as "smart," "intelligent," "knowledgeable," "competent" and "strong/confident."
"I think she's a really high-quality human being with great integrity ? smart as a whip, very strong ? and I would be comfortable if she became president if Biden had to resign or had some health issue," said Craig Richey, 62, a film and television composer from Los Angeles.
Richey, a Democrat, commended Harris' background as a prosecutor, which he said shined during her time as a U.S. senator from California. He questioned why "in some circles or in the press" Harris has endured criticism.
"I'm not sure for what because I don't know that there's been much out front that she can be measured on," Richey said.
Rick Davis, an insurance agent in Pembroke Pines, Florida, agreed that the vice president is doing an "excellent" job. The 52-year-old independent voter, who is Black, cited her efforts to reach out to younger voters and lobbying against gun violence.
"I follow her on Instagram and I see exactly what she's doing every day," he said. "I see her going out and getting things done."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris approval rating high among Dems but not elsewhere: poll
