Kamala Harris' Rising Approval Ratings Amidst Political Challenges

Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris is enjoying her highest approval ratings in more than two years, a new opinion poll has revealed. The vice president, who is currently serving under President Joe Biden, is hoping for a promotion when voters hit the polls in November's election. With just weeks to go, a new survey has shown how her approval rating has soared compared to opinion polls taken to assess her performance earlier in her career.

The clock is ticking down to the November 5 polling day, and surveys on voter intentions have painted a confusing picture so far. Trump appears to be performing well, even in typically Democratic states such as New York. However, most polls suggest that it is Harris who has a narrow lead in the race. Other polls indicate that the election is simply too close to call in some battleground states, with a recent survey suggesting both Harris and Trump were tied in a dead heat in Pennsylvania.

However, a poll taken purely to assess Harris' popularity, without reference to Trump or anyone else for comparative purposes, shows how Harris has been steadily growing her approval score over recent years. The straightforward poll—entitled simply "Do Americans approve or disapprove of Kamala Harris?"—shows how voters are becoming increasingly impressed with her. The same question has been asked repeatedly, in various polls by various pollsters, and 538 has compiled the data in order to build up a picture of how voters feel about Harris.

On January 3, 2022, some 40.1 percent approved of her, while 51.2 percent said they disapproved; meaning far more people (more than half those polled) didn't think much of Harris' performance in her role. A year later the result had shifted very little, with a January 2, 2023, poll showing that while slightly more people (41.7 percent) now approved of her, slightly more (51.7 percent) disapproved of her too.

But her team were likely more worried by the results a year later, that is: January in this year. A poll on January 3 showed that her approval rating had plunged to just 37.4 percent, while her disapproval rating now stood at 55.5 percent. And her popularity then hung somewhere below 40 percent for months.

On July 1 this year, her rating had crawled up to 39.4 percent (and the disapproval score had dropped to 49.4 percent). But all that began to change when Biden was forced to stand aside on July 21, amid fears for his health and cognitive abilities during the grueling campaign. Harris subsequently found herself at the top of the Democratic ticket.

After a short, initial drop in support, by August 1, Harris' approval rating finally hit the 40s, with an approval rating of 40.5 percent. Her disapproval rating had dropped too, down to 50.6 percent. Over the following months of the campaign, her figures improved steadily, with 538's chart plotting the results to show a clear upward trajectory.

She achieved her highest result in more than two years, with a 44.9 percent approval rating last Wednesday (September 25), while her disapproval rating had fallen to 47.6 percent. If the trend continues, the two lines will intersect as more people approve, rather than disapprove, of her.

However, last week's ratings still fall short of the popularity she enjoyed back on May 11, 2021, when 48.1 percent approved; far higher than the 37.4 percent who disapproved.

Another popularity-style poll tells the same story. Titled, "Do Americans have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Kamala Harris?", the graph shows how on February 1, 2021, some 48.4 percent held a favorable view of her, while 40.5 percent felt unfavorably toward her.

The favorable line gradually dropped as the unfavorable line rose, and by 2020 more people held unfavorable opinions toward her. But the picture changed after she took over the Democratic campaign this summer. And by last week (September 24), the lines had crossed over again, with slightly more people holding a favorable opinion (47.3 percent) than those who held an unfavorable one (46.5 percent).

When the same graph was plotted by 538 for Harris' Republican presidential rival ("Do Americans have a favorable or unfavorable