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Poll reveals how Dems really feel about Kamala Harris potentially taking Biden’s spot

July 20, 2024 | | Print Article

While uncertainty lingered about the Democratic Party’s presidential ticket, a new poll revealed what members thought if Vice President Kamala Harris got the nod to supplant her boss.

An attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life may have stalled over two weeks of disastrous debate coverage for his successor, but the reprieve remained only temporary as renewed calls included leftist heavy hitters hoping to see President Joe Biden step aside.

Contrasting the display of Republican unity at their convention, Democrats were left navigating the sticky wicket of Harris being the obvious – if not necessarily ideal — candidate to replace Biden atop the ticket were he to bow out. Adding to the mishegoss, a new poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed a majority of Democrat voters believed the incumbent vice president would do a good job with a hypothetical promotion.

According to the poll of 1,253 respondents between July 11 and 15, 58% of Democrats believed that Harris would do a good job as president and 20% of independent voters agreed. Still, 22% from her own party disagreed about how she would perform as commander-in-chief while the remaining 20% suggested they didn’t know enough.

Meanwhile, 87% of Republicans held that she would not make a good president.

As it happened, while CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin had recently suggested an ad from the Trump campaign could readily include a minute of dead air after asking the question, “Can you name anything that the vice president has achieved in the four years that she’s served?” the fact remained that the overall majority of voters polled, including Democrats, believed that it was time for Biden to withdraw.

Compared to 70% overall, 65% of Democrats wanted to see a change in the presumptive ticket in contrast to 73% of Republican voters holding strong support behind Trump’s nomination.

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Compounding troubles for the Democrats, as the AP-NORC poll revealed a considerable percentage of voters hadn’t formed an opinion on possible contenders like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, was the fact that polls repeatedly showed Harris being defeated by Trump in a head-to-head on Election Day.

In battleground states like Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, the GOP leader was shown to have a considerable advantage over Harris at the top of the ticket, leading her by seven, ten and six points respectively, according to Insider Advantage this week.

Additionally, in the days following the debate between Biden and Trump, it had been reported that Harris held considerable leverage in that, were the incumbent to bow out, contributions to the campaign would remain in her name if she were still on the ticket, but would otherwise have to convert to a political action committee or be returned to donors.

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Along with the state polling, a CBS News poll conducted from July 16-18 showed Trump beating Harris 51% to 48% overall and 54% to 43% among independent voters.

Kevin Haggerty
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