WASHINGTON – vice president Kamala Harris has a perceived advantage over the former president donald trump on several leadership qualities, such as honesty, finds an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, although Americans are slightly more likely to trust Trump when it comes to the economy and immigration.
Nearly half of Americans say “committed to democracy” and “disciplined” are attributes that best describe Harris. About 3 in 10 say these qualities best describe Trump.
About 4 in 10 say Harris is someone who “cares about people like you,” while about 3 in 10 say that about Trump. About 4 in 10 say “honest” best describes Harris and 24% say quality best describes Trump.
Both parties are rushing to define Harris as her prepares to accept Democratic nomination at the party convention next week. The poll suggests she carries some of the same baggage that weighed down President Joe Biden before he ended his re-election bid, but has advantages over Trump when compared to each other. And Democrats keep being much happier about her candidacy than about Biden’s.
Trump spent the campaign defending himself as a strong leader capable of handling the difficult crises facing the country and suggesting that foreign leaders would not respect Harris in the White House. But he has no advantage over Americans in this characteristic, according to the survey. Four in 10 American adults see Trump as a strong leader, and about the same percentage say the same about Harris. About 4 in 10 say Trump is capable of handling a crisis, and a similar percentage say Harris is better positioned to do so.
Americans are evenly split between who they think is more capable of winning in November – Trump or Harris. In July, before Biden dropped out of the race, only about 2 in 10 Americans I thought he was more capable of winningwhile about twice as many thought that about Trump.
“Trump had a better chance when Joe Biden was running,” said Lisa Miller, a 42-year-old Republican student from Elko, Nevada. “I think a lot of people who were insecure about Joe Biden are more secure with Kamala Harris’ age and cognitive abilities.”
Americans are more likely to trust Trump than Harris when it comes to handling the economy or immigration, but the difference is slight — 45% say Trump is better positioned to handle the economy, while 38% say the even about Harris. The difference is similar in the treatment of immigration. Independents are twice as likely to trust Trump than Harris on economic issues, and they also give him the edge on immigration.
Howard Barnes, a 36-year-old artist from San Francisco, is a Republican who says he trusts Trump over Harris on the border.
“She doesn’t really seem to be proactive or even interested in this,” Barnes said.
Harris has more of an edge over Trump when it comes to dealing with issues related to race and racial inequality, abortion policy and health care. About half of U.S. adults say Harris would do a better job than Trump in addressing each of these issues, compared with about 3 in 10 for Trump. Harris is especially strong among Democrats, independents and women on the issue of abortion policy.
Democrats and independents give him the edge on health care as well as issues of race and racial inequality. About two-thirds of black adults say Harris is the candidate they trust most on this issue, as do about half of Hispanic adults and white adults.
Harris’ strengths also highlight two areas where Republicans give Trump relatively low marks: abortion policy and issues related to race and racial inequality. Only about 6 in 10 Republicans trust Trump over Harris on these issues.
However, there are possible signs of trouble for Harris in the polls. Only about 6 in 10 Democrats trust her over Trump to do a better job handling the war in Gaza, her lowest rating within her party on the issues questioned. About a quarter of Democrats say they trust neither Trump nor Harris on this issue.
About two-thirds of Democrats say “enthusiastic” describes extremely well or very well how they would feel if Harris were elected.
The enthusiasm represents a sharp turnaround from when Biden was the Democrats’ nominee: a March AP-NORC Poll found that only 4 in 10 Democrats said “enthusiastic” would describe their feelings extremely or very well if he won another term. About 7 in 10 Democrats say “satisfied” would at least very well describe their emotions if Harris were to win. This is also a March changewhen half of Democrats said this about Biden.
“There’s definitely joy and there’s definitely hope, and I feel like that’s something that’s been missing,” said Meaghan Dunfee, a 33-year-old public sector worker in Hamilton, New Jersey. “I don’t think we’ve had that for a long time on the Democratic side.”
About 2 in 10 independents say they would be excited or pleased about Harris’ election, an increase from their response to Biden’s question in March. About half of independents say enthusiasm would describe their emotions at least “somewhat” well, up from about a quarter in March. Similar shares from independents say they would be excited or pleased about Trump’s election.
___
Cooper reported from Phoenix.
___
The survey of 1,164 adults was conducted Aug. 8-12, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24016885/STK093_Google_04.jpg?w=300&resize=300,300&ssl=1 "Google AI overviews give cited pages their own list")
