Americans give Kamala Harris an advantage over Donald Trump on honesty and discipline, poll finds

Harris, Trump. Image via AP.

Vice President Kamala Harris has a perceived advantage over former President Donald Trump on several leadership qualities such as honesty, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds, although Americans are slightly more likely to trust Trump on the economy and immigration.

Nearly half of Americans say that “committed to democracy” and “disciplined” are attributes that better describe Harris. About 3 in 10 say these qualities better 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” better describes Harris and 24% say that quality better describes Trump.

Both parties are racing to define Harris as she prepares to accept the Democratic nomination at the party’s convention next week. The poll suggests she carries some of the same baggage that weighed down President Joe Biden before he ended his reelection bid but has advantages over Trump when they’re compared to each other. And Democrats continue to be much happier about her candidacy than they were about Biden’s.

Trump has spent the campaign championing himself as a strong leader who is capable of handling tough crises facing the country and suggesting that foreign leaders wouldn’t respect Harris in the White House. But he doesn’t have an advantage with Americans on that characteristic, according to the survey. Four in 10 U.S. adults see Trump as a strong leader, and roughly the same share say that about Harris. About 4 in 10 say Trump is capable of handling a crisis, and a similar share say Harris is better positioned to do so.

Americans are about evenly divided 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 thought he was more capable of winning, while 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 student in Elko, Nevada, and a Republican. “I think a lot of people who were insecure about Joe Biden are more secure with Kamala Harris’ age and cognitive abilities.”

Trump holds advantage on economy, immigration

Americans are more likely to trust Trump over 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 that about Harris. The difference is similar in handling immigration. Independents are about twice as likely to trust Trump over Harris on economic issues, and they give him the advantage on immigration as well.

Howard Barnes, a 36-year-old artist in San Francisco, is a Republican who says he trusts Trump over Harris on the border.

“She doesn’t really seem to be proactive about it or even interested in it,” Barnes said.

Harris has more of an advantage over Trump when it comes to handling issues related to race and racial inequality, abortion policy, and health care. Roughly half of U.S. adults say Harris would do a better job than Trump handling each of those 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 her the edge on health care, as well as on issues of race and racial inequality. About two-thirds of Black adults say Harris is the candidate they trust more on that issue, as well as about half of Hispanic adults and white adults.

Harris’ strengths also accentuate 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.

There are possible signs of trouble for Harris in the poll, though. 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 asked about. About one-quarter of Democrats say they trust neither Trump nor Harris on this topic.

Democrats more excited about election now

About two-thirds of Democrats say “excited” describes either extremely well or very well how they would feel if Harris were to be elected.

The enthusiasm represents a sharp reversal from when Biden was the Democrats’ candidate: an AP-NORC poll from March found that only 4 in 10 Democrats said “excited” would describe their feelings extremely or very well if he won another term. About 7 in 10 Democrats say “satisfied” would describe their emotions at least very well if Harris won. That’s also a shift from March, when 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 in a long time on the Democratic side.”

About 2 in 10 independents say they would be either excited or satisfied by Harris being elected, an increase from their response to the Biden question in March. Roughly half of independents say excitement would describe their emotions at least “somewhat” well, up from about one-quarter in March. Similar shares of independents say they would be excited or satisfied about Trump being elected.

The poll of 1,164 adults was conducted August 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.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.