Approval ratings for one presidential candidate see a huge boost
Vice President Kamala Harris has seen her favorability rating shoot up after President Joe Biden ended his presidential campaign and she became the presumptive presidential nominee. According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, Harris' favorability rating among Americans hit 43 percent in late July. It's a sharp increase from its 35 percent before Biden exited the race.
Her unfavorable rating was 42 percent, down from 46 percent before Biden dropped out. It comes as the campaign season has seen a jolt of enthusiasm with the stake-up at the top of the ticket as Democrats have rallied behind the new presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
In less than a week, Harris raised $200 million and 66 percent of the donations came from first time donors, according to the campaign. It also signed up 170,000 new volunteers with less than 100 days now until Election Day. Despite the boost that typically comes with the conventions, Donald Trump has seen his favorability drop, according to the new poll.
Trump's favorable rating hit 36 percent at the end of July with an unfavorable rating of 52 percent, the poll found. Before Biden dropped out of the race, the Republican ex-president's favorability was at 40 percent among Americans with a 51 percent unfavorable rating.
At the same time, Trump's running mate J.D. Vance has a 24 percent favorability rating while 39 percent view him as unfavorable. However, unlike with Harris or Trump, many Americans are still just getting to know the conservative Ohio senator who Trump named as his running mate just two weeks ago.
17 percent of Americans said they did not have an opinion of Vance while 19 percent said they don't know. Overall, 86 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Americans believe Harris should be the Democratic presidential nominee, the poll found. Only 14 percent of Democrats said the party should have selected a different nominee.
The poll suggests there is a massive shift in the enthusiasm gap since Harris took over the top of the ticket. The poll found nearly nine out of ten Democrats are enthusiastic about Harris becoming the nominee with 63 percent saying they are very enthusiastic and 25 percent saying they are somewhat enthusiastic.
Among Republicans, 82 percent said they are enthusiastic with Trump being the GOP nominee. Since the massive shake-up in the presidential race, the polling found more people said they are likely to vote come November.
66 percent said they were absolutely certain to vote including 76 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Republicans, up from 62 percent in early July. The number who said they were less likely to vote dropped from 20 percent to 14 percent.
