July 24, 2024

Vice President Harris Favorability

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Grow Progress
DATE: July 23, 2024
SUBJECT: Vice President Harris Favorability

Survey Details

● Audience: National, general population
● Sample size: 572 (total), 262 (voter file matched)
● Dates in field: July 21 and 22, 2024
● Weighting factors: age, education, gender, party, race, and 2020 vote choice

Background and Purpose

When messages are grounded in people’s real concerns, thoughts, and understanding of the issues, they are more likely to persuade. An Audience Understanding Survey from Grow Progress is a large-scale qualitative tool that allows you to identify what truly motivates people by hearing from them in their own words.

Audience Understanding Surveys collect demographic information from participants such as race and ethnicity, gender, age, and education, as well as questions related to their personal values and beliefs about society. Every Audience Understanding Survey focuses on one Key Opinion Question, in this case:

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Vice President Kamala Harris?

Key Takeaways

Sentiment is split evenly between favorable (42%) and unfavorable (42%) opinions of Vice President Kamala Harris. The balance of respondents (16%) have neutral opinions.

A deeper look at opinions within the three middle segments (somewhat favorable, neither favorable nor unfavorable, and somewhat unfavorable) reveals opportunities for persuasion. The biggest theme among these segments is uncertainty — people feel as though they don’t have enough information on Harris, haven’t seen enough of her track record or wins as vice president, or have non-specific feelings about her character.

Findings

Key Opinion Question Results
Very favorable	24%
Somewhat favorable	18%
Neither favorable nor unfavorable	16%
Somewhat unfavorable	16%
Very unfavorable	26%

How respondents see themselves and the world

The Grow Progress platform visually highlights demographic and attitudinal differences among the segments using respondents’ answers to questions about their values and worldview.

●  Very favorable: This segment is overwhelmingly Democratic — 71% self-identify as Democrats and 77% voted Democratic in 2020. They have an optimistic and trusting view of the world, believe it is important to trust other people, view themselves as optimistic, and agree with statements such as:

●  Somewhat favorable: This segment is roughly half Democrats but also includes many moderates and independents. They index high on social trust and believe in political correctness and making the world a better place. They show more cautious tendencies than the very favorable group, such as agreeing that rule following is important, and agreeing with statements such as:

●  Neither favorable nor unfavorable: This segment is largely independent (68%) and over half is made up of young people (18-34 year olds) and people who did not vote in 2020. They index high on humor and enjoyment, and in addition to agreeing with many of the same views of the world that the favorable segments do, they agree with statements such as:

●  Somewhat unfavorable: This segment is nearly half independents and more than one-third Republican. They value the importance of taking care of their family and friends, rule following, and agree with the same statement about politicians not caring about people like them, as well as statements about tradition such as:

● Very unfavorable: This segment is mostly Republican — 62% self-identify as Republicans and 70% voted Republican in 2020 — and skews older (55+). They index high on tradition and religion and also agree with statements on tradition, politicians not caring about people like them, and statements such as:

 

Additional findings

In addition to the Key Opinion Question (Harris favorability), follow-up questions in the survey included to what extent people feel informed about politics and current events. In general, people with more strongly held opinions when it comes to favorability also consider themselves more informed on politics and current events.

In respondents’ own words

Respondents’ answers to open-ended questions allow us to better understand the sentiment of people in the three middle segments (somewhat favorable, neither favorable nor unfavorable, and somewhat unfavorable). These are the segments most likely to be persuadable, making their responses especially valuable when identifying messaging tactics. We found some interesting themes in respondents answers:

 

Neither favorable nor unfavorable:

• Generally positive but uncertain or non-specific
  • I have a good impression of Kamala Harris.
  • She says the right things and I liked her toughness when she was a senator. Being elevated as she is now, I have to see more.
  • I hate to admit this, but I’m lacking in my due diligence of keeping up with politics. Ever since that bastard Trump became president (and is now up for reelection what the hell?!) I kind of lost faith in American politics. I will say I am glad that we have a woman as vice president because I am sick and tired of seeing old, white men in political positions.
• Lack of interest/knowledge
  • I guess I don’t know anything about her.
  • I’m not familiar with her beliefs.
  • I don’t have any strong feelings about or follow her.

Somewhat favorable:

• • Uncertain of transition from VP to President
    • Well for President not as much for Vice President more scrutiny is sought about their character, morals and habits or should be, for Vice President not so much, Vice President doesn’t tell what it is that they would do if they were president while in the current job, I know she was a celebrated prosecutor mostly, African American, she’s cool
    • it has been an okay not as bad vice president that maybe could do a better job as the future president
  • Generally like her character
    • She is smart, young, and practical.
    • She smiles a lot so she seems genuine
    • She has proven very competent
    • She is assertive and tells it
    • Good speaker, debater, knows how to assert herself.
  • Good track record
    • Her experience as a US senator, Vice President and an attorney. I’ve also seen interviews with her, she’s smart and articulate!
    • She has been a loyal vice president. She was an effective prosecutor. Her parents are both very accomplished.
    • You can tell that she actually cares about the American people. She actively goes out in the community and she inputs on policies that are important.

Somewhat unfavorable:

• • • Comments about her character and stereotyping
      • I’m not sure, I didn’t like her from the start. The way she laughs when important people ask her serious questions might have something to do with it. She generally sounds like she did very well in her public speaking class, but not in any other. And she just doesn’t have the “charisma.” Also, I don’t think that Americans are ready to vote for a female president…
      • I think she’s fake and I don’t trust her. And I believe she was being groomed since she was elected as vice-president to become President. Biden was just a puppet used until Americans got used to the idea of a woman president.
      • She is incompetent and laughs when it is inappropriate.
      • She is not strong enough to be president; women like Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama are more experienced.
      • I have an unfavorable opinion about Kamala Harris because she seems kind of ditzy and seems to make up excuses for Biden, doesn’t seem like she’s taking her political role seriously, always laughing and joking.
    • Haven’t heard enough/don’t feel she’s done enough as VP
      • I haven’t heard many positive things she has done as vice president. However, maybe the media just hasn’t reported anything.
      • Because the whole time that she’s been in office we never hear about much that she is working on.
      • I feel like she has zero presence. She just stands there like an empty shell, with zero to say.
      • Hasn’t done anything while in office.
    • Don’t like her policies and record
      • Just don’t like that she will raise taxes which will cause the poor to have to pay more money for things like milk and eggs.
      • Haven’t been impressed by what she has done while Vice President.
      • She’s to liberal, extreme, for high taxes, cost of living and inflation.
    • Don’t agree with how she’s handled immigration/border
      • She had 1 job to do and that was to watch over the border and she failed miserably
      • I haven’t seen her do much and her visit to the border was a total fail.
      • Been out of sight. Border situation is awful.

 

• We also asked survey participants what has worried them most in the last month to better understand their day-to-day concerns and anxieties. Across segments, people brought up a general concern about war (both current and potential for future war).People in the neither favorable nor unfavorable segment largely brought up personal economic issues (jobs, housing, price of gas and groceries, etc.). Some also voiced that they worry about the presidential election and the future of the country.

  The somewhat favorable segment also overwhelmingly talked about personal economic issues, but many more respondents talked about the upcoming election and Trump as key concerns. They also brought up more policy issues, such as immigration and abortion access.

  The somewhat unfavorable segment was also mostly concerned about personal economic issues, along with some concerns about the election and policy concerns.

• Summary

  This survey identified several themes with potential to persuade key voter segments. These themes are helpful places to start when creating messaging and content that speak to people who are unsure or hold a soft opinion of Harris. Many people are uncertain or feel they don’t have enough information on Harris, her wins, and her platform, indicating opportunities for persuasion rooted in education.

  Reach out to us at [email protected] if you’re interested in learning more about our Audience Understanding Surveys or Rapid Message Testing.