New UMass Amherst Poll Finds Kamala Harris Enjoys Higher Job Approval from Americans than Joe Biden

"In the wake of former President Trump questioning the racial identity of Kamala Harris, and Harris vying to become the first Black female president of the U.S., there remains substantial attention on the issue of race in the 2024 campaign," says Nteta. "Americans are seemingly of two minds on questions of whether race will play a role. On the one hand, half of Americans believe that the nation is ready to elect a Black woman to the most powerful office in the nation with less than a quarter of respondents disagreeing with this sentiment. However, 4 in 10 Americans believe that Harris' ascendance to the top of the Democratic ticket is a reflection of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and not Harris' experience and readiness for the office, a trope that the nation has repeatedly embraced when faced with candidates from underrepresented groups. On Election Day, we will see if Americans will reflect the better angels of our nature, but our results suggest that voters are optimistic that the nation is ready to make history."

Likewise, attacks on Harris' eligibility to hold the presidency have similar levels of agreement (52%) from Republicans, but just one-quarter of the poll's overall respondents question her eligibility to hold the nation's highest office.

"For the most part, GOP efforts to cast Harris as a 'radical San Francisco liberal,' label her a 'DEI candidate,' or even imply that she may not be eligible to run appear to be largely missing the mark so far, except among Republicans," Theodoridis says. "The majority of Republicans believe Harris is the nominee for diversity reasons, and about half say she isn't eligible to run, but these opinions are not widely held by either Democrats or independents."

"Do Republicans need to go back to the drawing board?" Nteta wonders. "In the wake of Joe Biden's decision to step away from the campaign for president and his endorsement of Kamala Harris, a number of Republican elected officials and conservative media hosts have returned to the playbook made famous during the Obama administration and have questioned whether Harris is eligible to run for the presidency due to her parents' immigrant status. Given our identity as an immigrant nation, coupled with the high number of first, second and third generation Americans living in the U.S., it is no shock that this strategy has largely fallen on deaf ears. Only a quarter of Americans support the notion that Harris - who was born in Oakland, California, and has already been one heartbeat from the presidency for the last four years - is ineligible to run for the White House."

"Are voters being honest with us when 1 in 4 say they don't think Harris is eligible to serve as president?" La Raja asks. "It's hard to say whether our poll's respondents are sincere or engaged in some partisan trolling against the Democratic nominee."

State of the Nation - Economy, Crime and SCOTUS

The latest UMass Amherst Poll also surveyed respondents' views on the economy, crime and the legislative and judicial branches of our federal government.

"Not much has changed about how people feel about the national economy, or their own economic situation, over the past six months," La Raja says. "By conventional benchmarks, the American economy has been chugging along well in the past year, although a lot of voters don't feel that way. Two in five Americans say the economy is 'poor' - slightly more than six months ago (35%) - but interestingly, many fewer Americans (28%) currently call their own economic situation poor.

"The malaise among the American public extends beyond the economy," La Raja adds, noting how the stats belie voters' emotions. "Just over half (51%) of voters believe that crime in the nation increased in the past year, but FBI statistics report a 15% drop in both violent crime and property crimes in the past year. Additionally, 60% of voters believe illegal immigration has increased at the Southern border. However, since December there has been a steep drop in border encounters with undocumented immigrants, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And 69% of Americans think inflation has increased in the past year when, in fact, inflation rate has been quite stable, hovering at around 3.0% - slightly less than a year ago. By international standards that is very good."

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