U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on July 22, 2024. On Monday, Harris compared her election opponent Donald Trump to “predators” and “fraudsters,” as she criticized the first former U.S. leader to be convicted of a crime.
Erin Schaff | AFP | Getty Images
Vice president Kamala Harris is catching up with the former President Donald Trump on how many voters trust her handling the economy, according to a new report. Financial Times/Michigan Ross poll
The monthly survey found that 42 percent of voters trust Harris on economic issues, one percentage point more than the Republican presidential nominee. That’s a slim lead that falls within the poll’s margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. The poll, released Sunday, surveyed 1,001 registered voters between Aug. 1 and Aug. 5.
Other polls show Trump with a significant lead over Harris on economic issues. The most recent poll CNBC National Economic SurveyFor example, it found that voters thought they would be better off financially under Trump than Harris by a 2:1 margin.
However, the FT/Michigan Ross results signal a possible change in momentum for Democratic votes: Last month, only 35% of voters said they approved of the President. Joe Bidenhandling of the US economy, lagging behind Trump’s 41%.
Since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, the vice president has reset the game against Trump, enjoying a surge in donations, volunteers and rally attendance.
Even in a highly volatile election, however, the economy remains the defining issue for voters, who consistently cite inflation and high living costs as their top priorities in national opinion polls.
Three weeks after launching her presidential campaign, Harris has yet to formally announce her candidacy. economic policy the platform, although she said Saturday that it would be released in the coming days.
Meanwhile, both voters and donors wonder how far she can deviate from the current administration, which has often been blamed for public discontent with the economy.
Of those who responded to the FT/Michigan Ross survey, 60% said Harris should either completely break with Biden’s economic policies or “make major changes” to his agenda.
Trump has often exploited voters’ economic pessimism as a political tactic, turning economic danger signs into stories of all-out disaster that can be attributed to the policies of the Biden-Harris administration. For example, when the markets plunged last week, raising fears of a looming recession, Trump was quick to use Truth Social to label the moment “The Kamala Accident.”
Tying a Biden-Harris administration to voters’ pessimism about the economy tends to work in Trump’s favor. The FT/Michigan Ross poll found that 42% of voters said they would be “much better off” or “somewhat better off” in a hypothetical second Trump term, compared with 33% who said the same for Harris.
