Poll: White People Most Excited About Kamala Harris for VP and Most Likely to Find Elizabeth Warren Unacceptable
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White voters were most excited about California Senator Kamala Harris as Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate and most likely to say Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is “not acceptable” as Biden’s VP in a new poll.
The toplines in the latest USA Today/Suffolk University poll are consistent with other recent polls showing Sen. Harris rising to the top of the veepstakes, and underlining the importance for Democratic voters of fielding a diverse ticket.
Respondents were asked whether they find each candidate exciting, acceptable, not acceptable, or don’t know enough. Harris generated the most “excited” responses at 35 percent, with Warren in third at 27 percent, a tick behind former Georgia state legislator Stacey Abrams. When “excited” and “acceptable” are combined, Warren is a close second to Harris, 68 percent to 65 percent.
But among all the candidates polled, Warren had the highest rate of “not acceptable” responses at 19 percent.
Things get more interesting in the crosstabs, because although black voters were more excited about Kamala by more than double (32 percent for Harris vs. 15 percent for Warren), even more white voters — 41 percent — were excited by Harris, with 33 percent excited about Warren.
And white voters were most likely to find Warren “not acceptable” — 23 percent of whites said so, to 13 percent of Black voters and 19 percent of Hispanic voters. Harris was seen as “not acceptable” by 12 percent overall: 10 percent of whites, 9 percent of Black voters, and 19 percent of Hispanic voters.
White voters were also more likely than Black voters to say that Biden choosing a woman of color is “very” or “somewhat” important by a 75-60 margin — but an even greater 81 percent of Hispanic voters said the same.
Despite a renewed effort by supporters to lobby on Warren’s behalf, including new pieces in The Washington Post and NPR featuring interviews making the case for her, the polling indicates that notwithstanding significant goodwill for Warren, there is little appetite among Democrats for an all-white ticket.
