Staff Reports
Vice President Kamala Harris finds herself in a precarious position as Election Day looms closer, and it’s safe to say that panic has set in at the Harris-Walz campaign headquarters. The latest NBC News poll has revealed a shocking development: Harris is now deadlocked with Donald Trump at 48 percent among registered voters. This is quite the fall from grace for Harris, especially when one considers how the campaigns of 2020 and 2016 favored the Democrats. Back then, it would have been unimaginable for a vice president, let alone one who has been on a relentless media blitz, to face an indifferent electorate just weeks before an election.
This particular poll, conducted from October 4-8 with a sample of 898 registered voters, shows a troubling trend for the Harris campaign. After initially leading Trump by 5 points in September, Harris has seen her popularity decline faster than a lead balloon. As the campaign gears up to go full throttle, it appears that every public appearance only seems to exacerbate her dwindling approval ratings. The more she pushes herself into the spotlight, the further she sinks into the depths of disapproval, much like a sinking ship that just can’t stay afloat.
Steve Kornacki Brilliantly Breaks Down Kamala Harris' Problem in the Polls https://t.co/DefmyvXXOO
— ConservativeLibrarian (@ConserLibrarian) October 14, 2024
Kornacki, the poll guru from MSNBC, analyzed the numbers and pointed out that Harris has suffered a significant blow to her previously soaring popularity, which had briefly elevated her to 48% favorability following a summertime surge. Now, she stands at a dismal 43% positive against 49% negative. The numbers reveal that younger voters and independents—those who are often seen as the wild cards in elections—are turning their backs on her. So much for press conferences filled with staged laughter and awkward smiles.
Despite champions of Harris insisting that she would inherit a “honeymoon period” after becoming the Democratic candidate, the evidence shows this is less of a honeymoon, and more like an uninvited guest crashing a party nobody wanted in the first place. Having failed to win a single primary vote, one has to wonder how long her party can cling to the idea that she’s a viable candidate when even her allies appear increasingly dubious.
Trump, meanwhile, is riding a wave of increased approval, especially on key issues like immigration and inflation. His numbers have surged since September, with significant gains in the sentiments surrounding these issues. It appears that voters are drawing clearer distinctions between the two candidates, and, spoiler alert, they’re pro-Trump. What’s more, it’s been reported that the public’s retrospective views on Trump’s presidency are even higher now than they were while he was still in office. This could certainly raise some eyebrows in elite liberal circles where they thought the Trump legacy was left for dead.
Polls are tightening and with forecasts indicating battleground states leaning slightly toward Trump, Harris’s campaign is no longer the “stable” force Democrats had hoped it would be. The pre-election landscape looks like a tangled mess of uncertainty, and if there’s one thing to take away from this, it’s that going head-to-head with Trump is becoming a rookie mistake for the Harris camp. The voters are recalibrating their opinions, and they appear to enjoy the theatrics of the Trump persona far more than they do the weary mimicry of mainstream Democratic politics. In the world of political polling, the show has only just begun.
