Jun.13

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

President Harris, Anyone?

Basically, no. One of the biggest gripes many voters have about Joe Biden is that he is too old. In part, this means that he could be incapable of understanding complex situations and making good decisions. But implicitly, there is also the fear that he could die in office and Kamala Harris would then be president. So it is important to know what people think of Harris. To find out, Politico had Morning Consult run a poll asking about her.

To start with, only one-third of voters think she could win an election for president. Even among Democrats, only 60% think she could win. On the other hand, when asked who they would like the Democratic nominee to be if Joe Biden weren't running, the winner is—Kamala Harris, at 21%. Tied for second place are Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and Pete Buttigieg at 10%. Tied for third place are Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) at 4%. This tells us that while Harris is far from a shoo-in in 2028, Newsom and Whitmer have a lot of work ahead of them becoming better known. But they have 4 years to do it.

Here is a selection of the questions Morning Consult asked about Harris:

• Is she a strong leader? 42% yes, 48% no
• Is she trustworthy? 42% yes, 46% no
• Is she honest? 44% yes, 44% no
• Is she too liberal? 44% yes, 39% no
• Is she too conservative? 12% yes, 7% no
• Is she mentally fit? 52% yes, 46% no
• Is she smart? 52% yes, 38% no
• Could she handle the economy? 42% yes, 39% no
• Could she handle health care? 47% yes, 44% no
• Could she handle immigration? 40% yes, 50% no
• Could she handle abortion? 51% yes, 40% no
• Could she handle climate change? 46% yes, 42% no
• Could she handle education? 48% yes, 43% no
• Could she handle gun policy? 43% yes, 48% no
• Could she protect Medicare and Social Security? 47% yes, 44% no
• Could she handle the Middle East? 36% yes, 50% no
• Could she handle LGBTQ rights? 52% yes, 34% no
• Would she make a good president? 40% yes, 51% no

There were no crosstabs published, but we suspect Democrats like her on everything, Republicans hate her on everything, and independents go this way or that way depending on the question. Also, whether she would be "good" on LGBTQ rights really means "would she do what the respondent wants," not does she understand the material. (V)