On July 22, 2024, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris delivered a speech at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. Her election rival, Donald Trump, likened leaders convicted of crimes to “predators” and “crooks”.
Erin Schaaf | AFP | Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris is catching up with former President Donald Trump in the number of voters who trust her to handle the economy, according to a new FT/Michigan Ross poll.
The monthly survey found that 42% of voters trust Harris on economic issues, one percentage point higher than the Republican presidential candidate. The lead was razor-thin, well within the poll’s margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The poll, released on Sunday, surveyed 1,001 registered voters from August 1 to August 5.
Other polls have found Trump with a clear lead over Harris on economic issues. For example, a recent CNBC National Economic Survey found that voters believe their economy will be better off under Trump than under Harris by a margin of 2 to 1.
Still, the FT/Michigan Ross results signal a possible shift in Democratic vote dynamics: Last month, just 35% of voters said they approved of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, lagging behind Trump’s Trump’s 41%.
Since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, the vice president has recalibrated the dynamics of his matchup with Trump, resulting in a surge in donations, volunteers and rally attendance.
Yet even with the electoral shake-up, the economy remains a decisive issue for voters, who consistently cite inflation and the high cost of living as their top priority in national polls.
Three weeks into her presidential campaign, Harris has yet to unveil a formal economic policy platform, though she said on Saturday she would do so in the coming days.
At the same time, voters and donors are wondering how far she might go against the current administration, as public dissatisfaction with the economy often bears the brunt of the blame.
Sixty percent of respondents to the Financial Times/Michigan Ross survey said Harris should completely cut ties with Biden’s economic policies or make “significant changes” to his agenda.
Trump has often exploited voters’ economic pessimism as a political tactic in an effort to turn economic danger signals into a narrative of all-out disaster caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s policies. For example, when markets plummeted last week, fueling fears of a coming recession, Trump was quick to dub the moment on Truth Social the “Kamara Crash.”
Linking the Biden-Harris administration to voters’ pessimistic economic attitudes tends to work in Trump’s favor. A FT/Michigan Ross poll found that 42% of voters said their lives would be “much” or “somewhat” better in a hypothetical second Trump term, with Harry The number of voters who hold the same view is 33%.
