Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in an extremely close race. But on one key metric, Harris is showing signs of momentum.
The 2024 White House race remains too close to call, but Vice President Kamala Harris’ momentum is evident when you look just a little past the horse race.
Earlier this week, Harris’ favorability emerged above water for the first time since shortly after President Joe Biden took office.
«She’s getting a chance to write her own story there and at least has been able to somewhat drive a more positive message about her», Kristen Soltis Anderson, a founding partner at Echelon Insights, said on a press call hosted by AARP.
Soltis Anderson discussed a poll that the interest group commissioned, which found Harris has expanded Biden’s once-meager lead over women voters aged 50 and over.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, Americans now have slightly more favorable views of Harris than unfavorable. This is a dramatic shift, considering Harris was once polling so low that, at times, she flirted with being the least popular vice president in recent history.
«She has been allowed to shine a bit, which I think is very difficult to do when you’re the No. 2. By definition, a large part of your job is to stand a few feet to the left and a few feet behind the president and be supportive», Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics told Business Insider. «As opposed to now being the person who is front and center and is allowed to talk about who she is, what she wants to accomplish, and she is allowed to talk about her strengths and what she brings to the table.»
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Tim Malloy, a polling analyst for the Quinnipiac University Poll, said that favorability is a massive umbrella encompassing a wide range of emotions voters have for candidates. Likability also has a fraught history when it comes to female candidates, as best encapsulated by Barack Obama’s infamous 2008 jab that his Democratic senate colleague Hillary Clinton was «likable enough.»
Harris’ reversal of fortunes is a warning sign for former President Donald Trump’s campaign. Despite his and his allies’ best efforts, voters have yet to buy into their branding of Harris as a progressive chameleon who can’t be trusted.
