Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats are satisfied with Harris as nominee, AP-NORC poll says

US Vice President Kamala Harris appears to have motivated Democrats in the first days of his candidacywith a rebound in positive sentiment among several groups, including some key Democratic constituencies that had been especially lukewarm toward President Joe Biden, according to a new poll.

About 8 in 10 Democrats say they would be somewhat or very satisfied if Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after the election. Biden’s withdrawal from the election race.

In another AP-NORC poll, conducted before Biden stepped back but after his debate against the former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump, only about four in 10 Democrats said they were somewhat or very satisfied that he was the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for the White House.

The rapid shift in opinion among Democrats in such a short period of time underscores the speed with which the party — from grassroots voters to elected officials — has united around Harris as their standard-bearerbuoyed by a fresh face at the helm of the ticket and renewed confidence in the party’s prospects against Trump in November.

Gary Hines, a Philadelphia Democrat, said he wasn’t particularly impressed by Harris’s first presidential campaign, but the vice president has now shown “that she’s up to the task, she can do the job, she’s proven that she’s running a strong campaign so far and, perhaps on a bigger level, she’s someone who can beat Donald Trump.” All of those factors have stoked enthusiasm in Hines that wasn’t there when Biden was still in the race, he said.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there and knocking on doors, which is something I would never have done before,” said Hines, 68. “It’s really encouraged me.”

Americans are also more likely to say Harris would make a good president than they were in early July, a shift driven largely by Democrats.

But they still see a long battle ahead: Most American adults, 56%, believe that if Trump and Harris are their party’s candidates for the November general election, Trump would have a better chance of winning.

Lauren Schulman, a Democrat from Pompano Beach, Florida, said she admires Biden and what he has accomplished during his presidency. But she said that with him at the helm, “I’ve been terrified that we were going to lose.” Harris, by contrast, “has been a shining star,” said Schulman, 66, noting that the vice president is “smart and young, and even looks younger than she is. That’s a huge contrast to Trump.”

About 7 in 10 Black adults and nearly half of Hispanic adults would be satisfied with Harris as the Democratic nominee — a sharp increase from earlier this month, when about half of Black adults and 15% of Hispanics were satisfied with Biden as the party’s nominee. (The poll did not include enough Asian adults to analyze their responses separately.)

The share of young adults (under 45) who say they would be satisfied with Harris’s presidential nomination, at about 4 in 10, is up from 17% who were satisfied with Biden in July.

Bryan Seigler, a Democrat from Raleigh, North Carolina, praised Harris’s “broad appeal” and pointed to a comparison Democrats couldn’t make before.

“Donald Trump is the old man now,” said Seigler, 36.

The new poll shows Harris’ overall popularity has risen slightly, from 39% at the start of the summer — before the debate — to 46% now. Democrats’ opinion of Harris has also shifted slightly in a more positive direction. Eight in 10 Democrats have a positive opinion of Harris, up from about 7 in 10 at the start of June.

Harris would be a historic candidate: she would be the first woman to win the presidency, as well as the first Black woman, the first South Asian woman and the first Asian American woman. Nearly 4 in 10 Americans say it would be good for the country to elect a woman or a nonwhite person to the presidency.

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