Stunning New Survey Suggests Kamala Harris Favorability Is 25 Points Underwater with Independents

Alex Brandon/AP

New polling from Gallup suggests that Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is fighting a losing battle with independent voters.

According to the new survey of 1,007 American adults conducted between September 3 and 15, both Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump’s favorability ratings are underwater. Forty-six percent of respondents view Trump favorably, and 53% view him unfavorably. Harris is viewed favorably by 44% and unfavorably by 54%.

As one might expect, Trump’s favorability rating is extraordinarily high with Republicans and extraordinarily low with Democrats, while the opposite is true for Harris.

But while both candidates are underwater with independents, Harris is struggling much more so than Trump. Forty-four percent view Trump favorably, and 53% view him unfavorably, so the former president is doing even worse with independents than he is with the general population.

Yet those numbers take on a different meaning when compared with Harris’s. Just 35% of independents view the vice president favorably, while 60% view her unfavorably, meaning that she is 25 points underwater with the key demographic.

While the results should not come as welcome news to the Harris campaign, there is a silver lining. Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is much more popular than Trump’s, Senator JD Vance (R-OH). Vance is underwater by 11 points with all respondents (36%-47%) and 18 points with independents. Walz, on the other hand, has a positive favorable rating with the former group (41%-40%) and is close to having the same with independents (37%-40%).