Would Harris be helped — or hurt — if Biden resigned? What Americans said in new poll
If President Joe Biden had resigned from office when he withdrew from the race in July, Vice President Kamala Harris would have been president right now.
If this had happened, would Harris’ chances of winning the 2024 election be better? Would the country be better off? Americans are divided, according to a new poll.
In the latest YouGov poll, a plurality of respondents, 31%, said that Harris’ odds of winning would be about the same as right now if she were the incumbent president.
Sixteen percent said that she would be more likely to win the election in this scenario, while a larger share, 23%, said she would be less likely to win. Thirty percent said they were unsure.
The results largely broke along partisan lines, with more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans — 23% versus 11% — saying Harris would be more likely to win the 2024 election as president.
In contrast, 41% of Republicans said Harris would face worse odds of winning if she were leading the country, while 11% of Democrats said the same.
Conducted on Oct. 28, the poll sampled 8,142 U.S. adults.
The poll also asked respondents if they thought the country would be better or worse off if Harris had been president the past three months.
About half of respondents, 48%, said the country would be doing about the same as right now. Twenty-five percent said it would be worse off, and 10% said it would be better off. Eighteen percent said they were not sure.
Once again, there were significant partisan differences. A majority of Republicans, 52%, said the U.S. would be worse off under a Harris administration, while just 5% of Democrats said the same.
Eighteen percent of Democrats said the country would be in a better position, while 4% of Republicans said the same.
Additionally, a majority of respondents, 64%, said that they believed Biden should finish his term as president, while 25% said he should resign, and 11% said they were unsure.
These figures represent a slight shift from a July 21 poll — conducted the day Biden withdrew from the race — in which 56% of respondents said he should complete his term, and 30% said he should resign.
The poll comes one week before Election Day and as Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck-and-neck with one another, according to numerous nationwide and swing state polls.
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Would Harris be helped — or hurt — if Biden resigned? What Americans said in new poll."