Do Democrats think Kamala Harris would make a good president? What poll found

A majority of Democrats believe Vice President Kamala Harris is well-suited for the top job, according to a new poll, which comes as President Joe Biden faces mounting pressure to step down as the Democratic nominee.

In the latest AP-NORC poll, 58% of Democrats said they believe Harris would make a good president. Twenty-two percent said she would not and an additional 20% said they didn’t know enough to have an opinion.

The overwhelming majority of Republicans, 87%, said they believe Harris would not make a good president.

The poll, conducted between July 11 and 15, sampled 1,253 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.

Overall, 43% of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Harris, while a plurality, 48%, said they had an unfavorable opinion. Nine percent said they weren’t informed enough to have an opinion.

Seventy-four percent of Democrats said they had a favorable opinion of her, while 35% of independents and just 10% of Republicans said the same.

Respondents were slightly more favorable to Harris than to Biden and former President Donald Trump, who had 38% and 37% favorability ratings, respectively. And among Democrats, her favorability rating was four points higher than Biden’s.

The poll comes at a crisis point for Biden, who has been met with increasing calls to withdraw from the presidential race as concerns swirl about his fitness and his ability to defeat Trump in November.

Since the June 27 presidential debate — which was widely seen as a disaster for Biden — 30 prominent Democrats have publicly stated that he should step down as the Democratic nominee, according to the New York Times.

And, over the past week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have privately expressed concerns to Biden about him remaining at the top of the ticket, according to the Associated Press.

However, multiple prominent lawmakers have defended Biden remaining on the ballot, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

But, doubts about his campaign aren’t limited to members of Congress. The AP-NORC poll found 65% of Democrats want him to step aside.

Biden, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, is currently isolated at his Delaware beach house and weighing whether to bow out of the race, per the AP.

Publicly, he has shown no indication he plans to step down and has repeatedly said he is steaming ahead in his campaign for a second term. He has maintained that he believes he is “the most qualified person to run for president.”

However, he told BET News on July 18 that he would consider leaving the race if a medical condition arose.

This story was originally published July 19, 2024 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Do Democrats think Kamala Harris would make a good president? What poll found."