Kamala Harris is facing an uphill battle if she wants to succeed Biden in 2024
Kamala Harris is facing a steep uphill battle if she wants to succeed her boss Joe Biden in 2024.
Recent poll numbers show the vice president – and Biden’s heir apparent – hovering at just 44.3 percent favorability, according to poll aggregator RealClearPolitics. Her unfavorability is slightly higher at 46.3 percent.
Plagued by years’ worth of accounts of a toxic work culture under her watch, as well as her very public missteps while handling the monumental task of fixing the border crisis, Harris’ weaknesses are even apparent to Biden’s supporters.
The same aggregator site showed Biden with 51.8 percent favorability against 42.8 percent, and almost one in five people who supported Biden last fall did not think highly of Harris or did not have an opinion of her.
A majority of people in almost every age group ranked the struggling vice president as ‘very unfavorable,’ according to a new YouGov survey. The exception was 18 to 29-year-olds, who mostly (32 percent) said their opinion of Harris was ‘somewhat favorable.’
Only 13 percent of the same age group showed stronger support.
Harris’ favorability is two points lower than her unfavorability, according to RealClearPolitics
Harris has been struggling to please even Biden’s supporters – almost one in five people who supported the president in the fall either don’t think highly of Harris or have no opinion (pictured July 21)
Data shows Harris’ unpopularity is strongest among those aged 65 and up and white men without college degrees – with both numbers hovering above 50 percent.
The majority of both men and women surveyed ranked their opinion of Harris as ‘very unfavorable’ – 41 percent of males and 34 percent of females.
Less than half of Democrats surveyed (49 percent) found Harris ‘very favorable,’ while a whopping 87 percent of Republicans chose ‘very unfavorable.’
Biden should be ‘more supportive publicly’ of Harris to boost her numbers, according to a politics expert
Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos suggest Biden be ‘more supportive publicly and engage with Vice President Harris so that he can at least shore up his own voters,’ in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
The politics expert said it was clear that some people who voted for Biden in 2020 ‘thought there was a better pick or they’re not convinced that they like her.’
Harris has also reportedly been unpopular among her own staff. A damning Politico report from late June uncovered allegations of ‘an abusive environment’ they say ‘starts at the top.’
‘It’s not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It’s not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s—,’ a source with direct knowledge of how Harris’ office is run told the outlet.
A Harvard/Harris poll from June before Harris’ trip to the southern border showed voters’ discontent at her handling of the crisis, which Biden tapped her to lead the response to.
A Harvard/Harris poll from June 15 – 17 2021 reflected Americans’ discontent with the VP’s handling of the border crisis
People surveyed said Harris made no progress on her trip to Central America, before she traveled to the southern border
Harris’ trip to Guatemala to tackle the ‘root causes’ of the crisis was criticized when she bluntly announced during a speech ‘do not come’ to the US.
In a contentious interview with NBC’s Lester Holt during the trip, Harris appeared to dodge the anchor’s attempts to press her on visiting the border.
At one point Harris told Holt ‘we’ve been to the border,’ to which he pointed out she herself had not – prompting a somewhat confusing response.
‘And I haven’t been to Europe,’ Harris said. ‘And I mean, I don’t understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.’
Biden’s approval rating on immigration comes despite apparent discontent in Harris’ handling of the border crisis, according to numbers from just before her southern border visit (pictured July 22)
The majority of Americans polled by Harvard at the time said Harris was doing a bad job handling the root causes of illegal immigration.
The vice president made ‘no progress’ on that trip, 40 percent said, and nearly three-quarters say she should have visited the border on the same trip.
The survey also showed Biden had more than 50 percent support on the topic of immigration in June 2021.
Republicans also got a bump – GOP approval saw a 10 percent increase from January to June, with 53 percent of Americans viewing them favorably against 47 percent unfavorable.