Kamala Harris approval rating: Can Joe Biden’s Vice President beat Trump?

As President Joe Biden has dropped out of the US Presidential Race 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris has emerged as the favourite to replace the 81-year-old.

In a statement posted on X, Biden endorsed his Vice President Kamala Harris as his choice to be the Democratic nominee.

A series of polls conducted in the wake of the June 27 presidential debate showed Harris performing roughly the same as Biden against Trump, who has been leading the president by a slim margin for months.

A joint Economist/YouGov poll conducted July 13 – 16 and released Thursday found Biden would lose to Trump 41 per cent to 43 per cent, while Harris would perform slightly worse, losing to Trump 39 per cent to 44 per cent.

Publicly, Trump campaign advisers and allies have been telling reporters they are not worried about facing Harris because they can simply tie her to Biden’s record in office, particularly on immigration and inflation.

They say they will try to portray Harris, and any of the other candidates being suggested as alternatives for the Democrats, as being to the left of Biden on various policies.

Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said on social media after Biden dropped out that Harris “owns the entire leftwing policy record of Joe Biden.”

Polling from the key swing states of Pennsylvania and Virginia also shows positive signs for the vice president: New York Times/Siena College polls this month show that while Harris still trails Trump by one point in Pennsylvania, that’s a smaller gap than the three points that put Trump ahead of Biden there.

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Democratic polling firm Bendixen & Amandi found Harris beating the former president 42 per cent to 41 per cent in a survey released July 9 and first obtained by Politico, while Biden, Whitmer and Newsom all trail Trump.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released July 2 found Harris would lose to Trump by one point, Biden tied Trump.

Meanwhile, four governors who have been floated as potential Biden replacements, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker would all perform worse than both Biden and Harris against Trump.

In a CNN/SSRS poll conducted June 28-30, Harris outperformed Biden, and three other potential candidates commonly floated to replace him, in a hypothetical matchup against Trump, but she would still lose to the former president by two points.

Biden beat Trump in 2020 by winning in the key battleground states, including tight races in Pennsylvania and Georgia.

At a national level, he bested Trump by more than seven million votes, capturing 51.3 per cent of the popular vote to Trump’s 46.8 per cent.

A source familiar told CNN Biden and Harris spoke earlier today. It’s unclear when exactly they spoke.