The presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as his running mate for the 2020 presidential election.
Harris was one of the best-known potential vice presidential names and among the most popular for Biden supporters throughout the vetting process. Trended data from The Economist/YouGov Poll indicates that Harris remained a consistent top choice for those who plan to vote for Biden. Nearly a quarter (22%) of Biden supporters believed Harris should be selected to be the Democratic Party nominee for vice president before she was announced on Tuesday.
The California Senator is already well-known to Democrats after running her own presidential campaign. Data from The Economist/YouGov shows about two-thirds of registered Democratic voters (68%) have a favorable opinion of her, while about one in five (18%) do not. Harris’ highest unfavorability ratings (25%) came in the aftermath of one of her early debates against Biden, where she called into question his opposition to busing in the 1970s.
Most Biden supporters (51%) believe Harris will be an asset to the ticket, and only about one in eight (12%) believe she will hurt his chances of becoming president. Among the women being considered for the position, Biden voters were the most likely to believe that Harris (51%) or Senator Elizabeth Warren (50%) would be the greatest aid to Biden’s candidacy.
When asked earlier in August, very few Democrats (7%) said there was a vice presidential selection that would have caused them not to vote for Biden.
See the toplines and crosstabs from this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll
Related findings:
- Explore Kamala Harris’ favorability
- Biden voters prefer Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren as vice-presidential nominees
- Who Biden will pick for VP – and who he should pick
- Trump vs. Biden: Presidential voting intention 2020
Methodology: The latest Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 US registered voters interviewed online between August 2 – 4, 2020. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 3.3% for the overall sample.
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