- Vice President Harris has improved voter confidence in the Democratic handling of the economy
Americans have far more confidence in Kamala Harris than Joe Biden to handle the No. 1 issue in the 2024 election, a new poll reveals.
Democrats are seeing a big boost in who registered voters want in charge of the economy after Harris took over the 2024 presidential campaign.
And now, the vice president has even surpassed former President Donald Trump on this metric, according to a Financial Times/University of Michigan Ross School of Business Survey released on Sunday.
Trump’s stance on economic issues remained unchanged from July to August, with 41 percent approving of his handling of the situation.
Meanwhile, Harris has a 1-point lead, which is within the 3.1 percent margin of error of the Aug. 1-5 poll.
A new poll shows Kamala Harris moving ahead of Donald Trump on handling the economy, while Joe Biden repeatedly ranks below the former president.
But Harris’ 42 percent approval rating among 1,001 registered voters is a whopping 7-point jump from Biden’s showing last month, where he earned just 35 percent.
Since February, Biden has hovered between 31 and 37 percent among those who trust him to lead the U.S. economy amid rising inflation and near-recession conditions.
Trump, meanwhile, has remained above 40 percent over the same time period.
Half of respondents said the economy has worsened since Biden took office in 2021, and a whopping 73 percent of voters say they view U.S. economic conditions negatively.
But Biden’s departure and Harris’s entry into the race have shaken Americans’ ideas about who is best equipped to handle economic issues.
Americans consistently rank the economy as the most important factor affecting their vote in November.
Harris managed to regain 7 percentage points of registered voters who trust the Democratic candidate to handle the US economy.
Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan, said of the results: “The fact that voters were more positive about Harris than Biden… says as much about how poorly Biden is doing as it does about how well Harris is doing.”
Trump and his entourage say Harris is going through a “honeymoon phase” after entering the race last month and they believe she will soon fade away.
Democratic enthusiasm soared after Harris took over her 81-year-old boss’s campaign.
But Republicans say it’s still not enough to defeat Trump in November.
