Voters’ favorability of Vice President Kamala Harris increased almost 10% in the week since President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race, ushering Harris in as the front-runner for the Democratic Party.
A new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday morning found that Harris’s favorability rating jumped to 43% with an unfavorability rating of 42%. A poll released a week ago found the vice president had a 35% favorability rating and 46% unfavorability rating.
In the new poll, 44% percent of independents have a favorable view of Harris — up from only 28% a week ago. Her unfavorability rating among independents is now at 40%, a slight drop from 47% last week. When asked whether Harris should be the nominee, 86% of Democrats and 51% of independents said she should represent the Democratic Party in November.
Her increase in favorability comes after many prominent Democrats, including former President Barack Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have endorsed Harris. Most congressional Democrats have also thrown their support behind the vice president, while a few have argued for an open nomination at the Democratic National Convention in August.
Harris has sufficient support from delegates to become the nominee after multiple state delegations met last week to confirm their support for the vice president.
After Biden announced he was not seeking reelection and endorsed Harris, she announced she had planned to get enough support to earn the nomination rightfully.
“It is my intention to go out and earn this nomination and to win,” Harris said. “In the days and weeks ahead, I will do everything in my power to unite our party, to unite our nation, and to win this election.”
On the other side, former President Donald Trump‘s favorability dropped slightly from 40% to 36% in Sunday’s poll. His favorability rating among independents dropped as well, from 35% last week to 27%.
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Harris has an edge over Trump when it comes to excitement over their candidacies. The poll found 48% of voters would feel enthusiastic if Harris became the nominee, compared to 39% who said the same about Trump becoming the GOP nominee.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted from July 26-27, 2024, with a sample of 1,200 adults and a margin of error of 3.0 percentage points.
