Kamala Harris Winning Over White Voters From Trump, Polling Suggests

Vice President Kamala Harris is winning over white voters from former President Donald Trump, recent polling has suggested.

The latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that while the Democratic nominee's biggest boost has come from Black voters, she has also improved with white voters overall.

The survey, conducted between August 1 and 4, found that 46 percent of white voters would vote for Harris if the election were held today, compared to 51 percent who would vote for Trump, the Republican nominee.

But Harris' share is up from the 40 percent of white voters who said they would back her in a poll conducted shortly after President Joe Biden quit the race on July 21 and endorsed Harris to replace him at the tip of the Democratic ticket.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on August 8, 2024, in Wayne, Michigan. Polls suggest she is winning over white voters from Donald Trump. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on August 8, 2024, in Wayne, Michigan. Polls suggest she is winning over white voters from Donald Trump. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Meanwhile, a Marquette Law School poll has found that Harris is trailing Trump among white voters by just eight percentage points, 42 percent to 50 percent.

A majority of white voters have backed Republican candidates in every presidential election over the past 50 years, but the recent polls suggest Harris—the first woman of color to top a major party's presidential ticket—could perform better with white voters than Biden did against Trump in 2020.

Biden got 43 percent of the white vote in 2020, while Trump garnered 55 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

Harris' ratings "seem to be rising with nearly all demographics, white voters included," Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek.

"That seems to bode well for her competing in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, where Harris has seen a surge of enthusiasm."

Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, told Newsweek that polls "suggest Harris is outperforming Biden nationally against Trump, and the boost is apparent across the board among most subgroups of voters including whites.

"This is a testament to excitement for Harris among white voters but also reservations about Trump. It's likely a combination of Harris strengths and Trump weaknesses."

Grant Davis Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, said some of it "is probably being driven by the enthusiasm among the white left voters for her candidacy."

Reeher told Newsweek it is "also due to the general enthusiasm for her campaign, and some of this is probably due to the obvious enthusiasm that the media is showing for her run. The Trump campaign's missteps in focusing on Harris' personal character and belittling her campaign are also helping the Democrats."

But they cautioned that Harris' campaign remains in its honeymoon phase.

"It might make sense to let the dust settle before reading too much into how she's performing with specific cohorts of Americans," Gift said.

"Momentum can change in a hurry, as we've already seen in this election cycle, and there's good reason to think Trump is just getting started in figuring out what types of attacks work against Harris."

The race "remains close and will likely stay that way through Election Day," Panagopoulos added.