MSNBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki broke down Vice President Kamala Harris’ declining momentum in recent polling ahead of the 2024 election during a Monday segment.
Harris’ reputation among voters dropped to 43% positive in October, a 5-point drop from where she stood in September, Kornacki said. The vice president’s negative rating jumped from 45% in September to 49% in October after she spent the month doing a media blitz with several friendly outlets.
“The shift is here, it’s with Harris, 43% positive, 49% negative,” Kornacki said. “When we took that last poll a month ago, she was actually above water. She had a 48% positive rating and a 45% negative rating. There was a clear advantage for her a month ago on basic image, basic likability, basic perception over Donald Trump. That advantage, in our poll at least, has gone away in a month for her,” Kornacki said.
Republican nominee Donald Trump received a 43% positivity rating and a 51% negativity rating, which Kornacki said was about the usual rating seen for the former president in polling. He noted that the positive rating is a “tick higher” than usual.
The poll shows Trump and Harris are currently tied 48% to 48%, indicating a decline for Harris who previously led 49% to 44% in September, Kornacki said. The previous poll finding Harris in the lead was conducted in the wake of the presidential debate held on Sept. 10.
“Back then, our poll had Harris up by 5, now a tie. Just in terms to refresh people of what happened since we took our last poll, this poll was conducted just in the wake of that Trump-Harris debate, what’s happened since, obviously there’s been a vice presidential debate, there’s been campaign events, Harris has done a number of interviews,” Kornacki said.
The poll found Trump’s retrospective approval rating faring better than President Joe Biden’s by 5 points, indicating that Harris is from an unpopular administration.
“I think Harris is weighted down by being part of an unpopular administration. Joe Biden’s approval rating in our poll sits at 43% and to put this in perspective, we also checked the retrospective job approval rating for Donald Trump, asking voters right now thinking back to Trump’s presidency, do you approve or disapprove of the job he did,” Kornacki said. “A 48% approval rating for Trump retrospectively, notably, that is better than Trump ever did in our poll when he was actually president. So Trump perhaps benefiting from a little bit of a warming of attitudes towards his presidency after the fact and again, that’s 5 points better than Biden’s current approval rating in our poll.”
Harris, who joined the top of the ticket in mid-July, pulled ahead of Trump for several weeks while she refused to participate in a sit-down interview or hold a press conference. Harris’ momentum had seemingly fallen in September and October, leaving the race at a deadlock tie.
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