Can You Guess How Americans Feel About Harris’s Platform?
Test your knowledge of what the public thinks about the VP’s policies.
Vice President Kamala Harris launched her run for president just 107 days before Election Day, so she’s had to cram a lot of campaigning into the last few weeks. This includes reintroducing herself as a top-of-the-ticket candidate to voters and laying out her policy platform. She’s done much of this through speeches, including her nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
So now that voters have gotten to know a bit more about Harris and what she plans to do if elected president, how are they feeling about the nominee and her platform? See if you can guess what recent polls have found about Harris and her policy positions in our quiz below.
Let’s start off by looking at how Americans’ overall feelings about Harris have changed since President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her in his stead. 538 maintains a running average of Harris’s net favorability rating — the difference between the average share of Americans who say they have a favorable view of the vice president and the average share who say they have an unfavorable view. A negative net favorability rating means more Americans have an unfavorable view of her than a favorable one.
Some critics have slammed Harris for running a campaign they say is light on policy and heavy on good vibes. Do voters feel like they’ve been able to get a clear grasp on her platform?
So most voters feel like they have a good sense of what Harris stands for — but whether they like what they’re hearing is a different story. Harris has been labeled a “communist” by some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who has referred to her as “Comrade Kamala.” Are those attacks sticking with voters, or do most Americans view her policies as mainstream?
Harris has been a vocal advocate for abortion rights even before she began her campaign. In March, she became the first vice president to ever tour an abortion clinic. Harris has said she wants to see abortion rights enshrined federally. How well do you think she’s communicated her stance on this issue to voters?
As vice president, one of Harris’s first assignments was to tackle the migration crisis at the southern border. Biden tasked her with executing a “root cause” strategy that would focus on improving economic conditions in certain source countries. It hasn’t been successful, and Trump’s campaign has been using it as fodder for attacks on Harris. Has the vice president been able to carve out her own position on immigration and convince voters she could curb the problems at the border?
Economic issues have dogged Biden for much of his term in office, and despite his administration’s efforts, voters are still not happy about the state of the economy. But is Americans’ displeasure with the president on the issue rubbing off on Harris too? How much does the public trust the vice president on an issue that consistently ranks as one of voters’ top priorities?
Harris followed Trump’s lead in announcing that, if elected, she’d pursue legislation that would eliminate federal taxes on tips. It seems like both candidates believe this is a popular position, but are they right?
Harris has focused much of her messaging on making life more affordable for Americans, and a big piece of that puzzle is housing, which is eating up a bigger and bigger share of Americans’ monthly budgets. One of the first solid platform planks Harris unveiled was a plan to reduce housing costs that included a proposal to introduce federal grants to cities so they can build more affordable housing. Are Americans supportive of this strategy?
While Harris has been a presidential candidate for only six weeks, Americans already seem to have a pretty good grasp on who she is and what she stands for. And while some of her policy proposals are quite popular, other areas, like immigration, present more of a challenge for her. We’ll keep watching to see if and how voters’ views of the vice president change as the campaign kicks into high gear in the coming weeks.
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