Kamala Harris, the first female VP in US history
Photo: Ken Cedeno / EPA / EFE
Kamala Harris, who in January became the highest political ranking woman in U.S. history, is having a low level of acceptance not seen among any of the vice presidents of the last almost three decades.
Going back 28 years in the surveys of NBC, no other new vice president had been less popular in his first year in office.
In the latest poll, pollster Bill McInturff noted that the 56-year-old former California senator had 37% acceptance and 46% rejection, commenting that it is a “very negative rating unprecedented in the follow-up of @NBCNews polls”.
The poll placed Harris, who just finished a tour of Asia, below former Vice Presidents Al Gore (R), Dick Cheney (R), Joe Biden (R) and Mike Pence (R). It also has the largest gap of “positive total” versus “negative total” with minus 9 points. By way of comparison, Cheney’s gap was 23 plus points, even though he was heavily criticized at the time.
McInturff also highlighted the gap in minus 17 points between opinion “very positive” (19%) versus “very negative” (36%) of the vice president given by the respondents, almost tripling the next worst, the 6 negative points of Biden in the first year of the Obama administration (2009).
“Since taking office, Harris has had trouble emerging. He has been entrusted with the job of fixing immigration (…) and promoting electoral reform, but both are stagnant, ”he wrote on Wednesday in Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard.
Biden has also suffered a drop in popularity in recent weeks. According to analysts, this is due to the rebound in the coronavirus, inflation and, now, the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
How bad for Dems? Biden receives his highest “very negative” rating in 17 years of tracking on @NBCNews. New reality in the post-Trump era, much higher negative intensity than pre-Trump presidents. pic.twitter.com/btMZsFtbjT
– Bill McInturff (@pollsterguy) August 25, 2021
VP Harris has lowest feeling thermometer of any first year VP going back to Gore in 1993… with an unprecedented “very negative” rating on @NBCNews survey tracking. pic.twitter.com/Ii3AlR5EZ2
– Bill McInturff (@pollsterguy) August 25, 2021