When President Biden speaks at the Democratic National Convention, his party’s rank-and-file voters will be largely optimistic about his presidency.
Democrats across the country actually feel more positive about Mr. Biden’s presidency now than when he was running for reelection in March, with three in four describing his presidency as “excellent” or “good.”
But this positive assessment doesn’t extend far beyond Democrats. Voters overall, including most independents and an overwhelming majority of Republicans, view his presidency more negatively, either as “fair” or “bad.”
What does this mean for Harris?
There is some correlation between opinions about a Biden presidency and support for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unsurprisingly, voters who view Mr. Biden’s presidency as “excellent” or “good” are almost unanimously voting for Harris.
And those who think President Biden is doing a “bad” job largely support former President Donald Trump.
So what about voters who are not entirely satisfied with Biden’s presidency so far, but aren’t particularly negative about it either—those who rate his presidency as “fair”?
Voters who share this view are largely independents and disaffected voters, and Harris enjoys the support of many of them.
So even if these voters don’t feel particularly positive about a Biden presidency, most of them are currently supporting Harris over Trump.
This analysis comes from a CBS News/YouGov poll of 3,258 registered voters nationwide conducted between August 14 and 16, 2024. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, education, and past voting, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey. Respondents were selected to be representative of the national registered voter population. The margin of error for registered voters is plus or minus 2.1 points.
The battlegrounds are AZ, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA, WI.
