WASHINGTON — Vice-Chairman Kamala Harris has a perceived advantage over the former president Donald Trump A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that Americans trust Trump slightly more when it comes to the economy and immigration.
Nearly half of Americans say “committed to democracy” and “disciplined” are qualities that better describe Harris. About 3 in 10 say those qualities better describe Trump.
About 4 in 10 say Harris is someone who “cares about people like you,” while about 3 in 10 say that about Trump. About 4 in 10 say “honest” better describes Harris, and 24% say quality better describes Trump.
Both parties are in a race to define Harris for who she is. prepares to accept the Democratic nomination at the party convention next week. The poll suggests she carries some of the same baggage that weighed down President Joe Biden before he ended his reelection bid, but that she has advantages over Trump when the two are compared head-to-head. And Democrats stay much happier about her candidacy than about Biden’s.
Trump has spent the campaign promoting himself as a strong leader capable of handling the country’s tough crises and suggesting that foreign leaders wouldn’t respect Harris in the White House. But he doesn’t have the edge among Americans on that front, the poll found. Four in 10 American adults see Trump as a strong leader, and about the same share say the same about Harris. About four in 10 say Trump is capable of handling a crisis, and a similar share say Harris is better positioned to do so.
Americans are about evenly divided on who they think is more capable of winning in November — Trump or Harris. In July, before Biden withdrew from the race, only about 2 in 10 Americans thought he was better able to winwhile about twice as many people thought that about Trump.
“Trump had a better chance when Joe Biden was running,” said Lisa Miller, a 42-year-old college student in Elko, Nevada, and a Republican. “I think a lot of people who were unsure about Joe Biden feel more secure because of Kamala Harris’ age and cognitive abilities.”
Americans are more likely to trust Trump than Harris on the economy or immigration, but the gap is small: 45% say Trump is better positioned to manage the economy, while 38% say the same of Harris. The gap is similar on immigration. Independents are about twice as likely to trust Trump as Harris on economic issues, and they also give him the edge on immigration.
Howard Barnes, a 36-year-old artist from San Francisco, is a Republican who says he trusts Trump more than Harris at the border.
“She doesn’t seem to be really proactive about it or even interested in it,” Barnes said.
Harris has a bigger advantage over Trump on issues related to race and racial inequality, abortion policy and health care. About half of U.S. adults say Harris would do a better job than Trump on each of those issues, compared with about 3 in 10 for Trump. Harris is particularly strong among Democrats, independents and women on abortion policy.
Democrats and independents give her the edge on health care, and on race and racial inequality. About two-thirds of black adults say Harris is the candidate they trust most on those issues, and about half of Hispanic adults and white adults do.
Harris’ strengths also highlight two areas where Republicans give Trump relatively low marks: abortion policy and issues related to race and racial inequality. Only about 6 in 10 Republicans trust Trump over Harris on these issues.
There are potential signs of trouble for Harris in the poll, however. Only about 6 in 10 Democrats trust her over Trump to better handle the war in Gaza, her lowest rating within her party on the issues asked about. About a quarter of Democrats say they trust neither Trump nor Harris on the issue.
About two-thirds of Democrats say “excited” is a very good or extremely good description of how they would feel if Harris were elected.
The enthusiasm represents a sharp turnaround from when Biden was the Democratic nominee: a AP-NORC Poll from March found that only 4 in 10 Democrats said “excited” would describe their feelings extremely or very well if he won another term. About 7 in 10 Democrats say “pleased” would describe their emotions at least very well if Harris won. That’s also a March shiftwhen half of the Democrats said this about Biden.
“There’s definitely joy and there’s definitely hope, and I feel like that’s something that’s been missing,” said Meaghan Dunfee, a 33-year-old government worker in Hamilton, New Jersey. “I don’t think we’ve had that on the Democratic side in a long time.”
About 2 in 10 independents say they would be excited or satisfied if Harris were elected, up from their response to the Biden question in March. About half of independents say excitement describes their emotions at least “somewhat” well, up from about a quarter in March. A similar share of independents say they would be excited or satisfied if Trump were elected.
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Cooper reported from Phoenix.
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The poll of 1,164 adults was conducted Aug. 8-12, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.