Poll: Trump's favorability improves, but both still below 50 percent
Recent Gallup polling found a majority of Americans find both presidential candidates "unfavorable", similar to patterns in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
From Sept. 3-15, Gallup asked just over 1,000 Americans across the country their opinions of the major presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Here’s what the findings were:
Americans’ opinions of presidential candidates
Overall, Americans were more likely to think of the candidates unfavorably than favorably.
Americans were more likely overall to view Trump more favorably than Harris (46% - 44%).
And Americans were found to have about an equal unfavorable view of both candidates, with 53% finding Trump unfavorable and 54% finding Harris unfavorable.
Change in Americans’ opinions
Harris had a bump in favorability after she was replaced as the Democratic presidential candidate over President Joe Biden in July, but Gallup polling has found the bump to be leveling off now.
Trump’s favorability took a drop over the summer, around the same time Harris had a bump in favorability, but Trump’s favorability is up 5% since then, back to the level he was at in June.
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Past candidate ratings
In 2016, Gallup found Trump and Hillary Clinton to be the least favorably viewed presidential candidates in the history of its polling.
Since then, Gallup said less than half of U.S. adults have rated presidential candidates positively in the summer and fall of the election year.
Trump is currently viewed better than he was at a similar point in the 2020 and 2016 campaigns, while Harris’ positive rating is on par with Biden’s in 2020 and well above Clinton’s in 2016, Gallup said.
"Should those evaluations hold through the end of the campaign, it would mark the third consecutive presidential campaign in which neither candidate garnered majority-level favorable ratings from the public," Gallup said. "The current similarity between Trump’s and Harris’ favorable ratings may be a sign of a tight race."
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