Polls show Democrats’ enthusiasm for US election growing

Two new polls released Wednesday (14) show growing enthusiasm among Democrats ahead of this year’s U.S. presidential election, helping to narrow the partisan enthusiasm gap that existed earlier this year when the race was between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

In a new Monmouth University poll, 85% of registered Democratic voters say they are excited about a race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, up from just 46% who said in June they were excited about a Trump-Biden rematch.

Republican voters’ enthusiasm for the current matchup is at 71%, unchanged from their feelings about the Biden-Trump contest in June. Just 8% of registered voters are now so-called “double haters,” with negative impressions of both Trump and Harris, the poll finds — by contrast, 17% currently have negative views of both Trump and Biden.

In a new AP-NORC poll, 63% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning adults say they would be excited if Harris were elected president, compared with 57% of Republican-aligned adults who say the same about Trump. In March, just 40% of Democratic-aligned Americans said they would be excited if Biden won.

The AP-NORC poll finds that when asked to compare the two candidates, Americans see Harris as more committed to democracy than Trump (48% to 28%), more disciplined (47% to 28%), more honest (43% to 24%), with a right vision for the country (42% to 35%) and more committed to people like them (42% to 30%). Opinions are more divided on which candidate is better able to handle a crisis (41% say Harris; 38% Trump) and who is a strong leader (40% say Trump; 37% Harris).

In the AP-NORC poll, Harris is more trusted than Trump to handle abortion policy (51% say they trust her to handle the issue better, vs. 27% who say they trust Trump more), issues related to race and racial equality (51% to 26%) and health care (46% to 31%). On the other hand, Trump is considered more trusted than Harris to handle the economy (45%, Trump; 38%, Harris), immigration (46% to 36%) and the war in Gaza (36% to 31%).

Americans are evenly divided on whether Trump or Harris would be better at handling crime or the war in Ukraine. Recent polls have varied in voters’ relative assessments of Harris and Trump on the economy, though several show Harris gaining ground on Trump over Biden’s stance on the issue.

Neither the Monmouth nor the AP-NORC poll directly tests a competition between Harris and Trump. The Monmouth poll asks a series of separate questions about voters’ likelihood of voting for each candidate, which should not be combined or treated as a contest.