Approval ratings for one presidential candidate soar
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Vice President Kamala Harris saw her approval rating skyrocket after President Joe Biden ended his presidential campaign and she became the presumptive presidential nominee. According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, Harris’ approval rating among Americans reached 43 percent in late July, up from 35 percent before Biden left the race.
Her unfavorable rating was 42 percent, down from 46 percent before Biden withdrew. It comes as the campaign season has seen a jolt of enthusiasm with the stakes at the top of the ticket as Democrats have rallied behind the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In less than a week, Harris raised $200 million, and 66 percent of the donations came from first-time donors, the campaign said. They also signed up 170,000 new volunteers with less than 100 days to go until Election Day. Despite the boost that usually accompanies the conventions, Donald Trump’s popularity has fallen, the new poll found.
Trump’s favorability rating reached 36 percent in late July, with an unfavorable rating of 52 percent, the poll found. Before Biden dropped out of the race, the Republican ex-president’s favorability among Americans stood at 40 percent with an unfavorable rating of 51 percent.
At the same time, Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance has a 24 percent approval rating, while 39 percent view him unfavorably. Unlike Harris or Trump, however, many Americans are only just getting to know the conservative Ohio senator whom Trump named as his running mate two weeks ago.
Seventeen percent of Americans said they had no opinion about Vance, while 19 percent said they didn’t know. Overall, 86 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Americans believe Harris should be the Democratic presidential nominee, the poll found. Only 14 percent of Democrats said the party should have chosen a different candidate.
The poll suggests there has been a huge shift in the enthusiasm gap since Harris took over as the top of the ticket. The poll found that nearly nine in 10 Democrats are enthusiastic about Harris as the nominee, with 63 percent saying they are very enthusiastic and 25 percent saying they are somewhat enthusiastic.
Among Republicans, 82 percent said they were enthusiastic about Trump as the GOP nominee. Since the massive shakeup in the presidential race, polls have shown more people saying they are likely to vote in November.
Sixty-six percent said they were absolutely certain they would vote, including 76 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Republicans, up from 62 percent in early July. The number of people who said they were less likely to vote fell to 14 percent from 20 percent.
