Kamala Harris gains popularity and closes her gap for the first time in three years

Kamala Harris’ popularity has increased significantly, achieving a positive net popularity rating for the first time in three years.

The poll tracker of aggregator FiveThirtyEight showed that Harris’ negative rating began to drop dramatically after July 21, when she was named the Democratic presidential nominee.

On July 20, her negative rating was 16 points higher than her positive rating: 52.7 percent of Americans viewed her negatively, while 36.8 percent viewed her positively. By July 27, the gap between the two ratings had narrowed to 9.6 points: 50.4 percent of Americans had a negative opinion of her, while 40.8 percent thought the opposite.

Since then, the gap has continued to close. FiveThirtyEight’s tracker now shows that her positive and negative ratings are neck and neck: 46.6 percent of Americans have a positive opinion of her, while the same percentage have a negative opinion of her.

This is the first time that Harris’ ratings have been nearly the same since July 17, 2021. Back then, her popularity was at 46 percent, while 45 percent held an unfavorable opinion.

This comes after the majority of polls since the first presidential debate between Harris and Donald Trump in Philadelphia on September 10 showed a positive net popularity rating for the vice president. Both candidates declared themselves the winner, but a CNN snap poll conducted shortly after the debate found that 63 percent of viewers thought Harris was the winner, compared to 37 percent who said the same about Trump.

A poll conducted by Morning Consult between September 13 and 16 gave Harris a 7-point net positive popularity rating among 2,037 likely voters, with 53 percent of Americans viewing her favorably, while 46 percent view her unfavorably.

A Big Village poll conducted between September 11 and 15 found Harris with an 8-point net positive popularity rating among 1,568 likely voters. Fifty-three percent of Americans view her favorably, while 45 percent view her unfavorably.

A Sept. 13-16 Angus Reid global poll found Harris’ positive and negative ratings were evenly split among 1,707 registered voters. In contrast, a Sept. 11-12 AtlasIntel poll found more Americans viewed her negatively than positively.

On September 11, the day after the debate, Harris’ net popularity rating was -0.8 points. Before the debate, polls fluctuated, with some suggesting that more Americans viewed her favorably than unfavorably, while others showed the opposite.

Although the polls have not always been consistent, they show that Harris is polling better than her opponent Trump.

The Republican’s approval rating currently stands at 42.8 percent, while 52.7 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of him. Not a single poll conducted since Harris became the Democratic nominee has shown that more Americans view him positively than negatively.

According to Morning Consult’s poll, 54 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of him, while only 44 percent have a favorable opinion of him. According to Angus Reid’s poll, 54 percent of voters have an unfavorable opinion of him, while only 43 percent think he takes the opposite stance.

However, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker shows that Trump’s positive/negative margins have shrunk since July. The gap between the two was 12.1 points on July 20, but today it is 9.9 points.

Still, FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker showed Harris, at 48.3 percent, three percentage points ahead of Trump, at 45.3 percent, up from her 2.5 percentage point lead before the debate.

FiveThirtyEight’s forecasting model also found that Harris is expected to win the Electoral College in November with 294 votes, while Trump will have 244. That’s an increase of 279 votes compared to Trump’s 259 votes on the day of the debate.

However, Nate Silver’s Electoral College prediction showed that Trump has a 60 percent chance of winning, while Harris has only 38 percent.

Newsweek has emailed Trump and Harris’ campaign teams for comment.