Harris has America’s confidence far more than Biden

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: With Kamala Harris now in the race for president, we wanted to revisit some questions we’ve asked since the 2020 election cycle.

What we found: In the last wave, we found that people were more confident about their economic futures under a second Trump term than a potential Harris presidency. This wave we asked about a few more topics. Harris has a slight edge on Trump on the responsible development of AI and a larger edge on the U.S. becoming less divided. Trump has the edge on an end to conflicts in Palestine and Ukraine and stabilization of immigration rates, both hot-button issues that are dividing even those within the Democratic party. But on one of the biggest hot-button issues of this cycle, access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare Harris has a commanding lead with half of people feeling more confident under her leadership and only one in five saying the same for a Trump presidency.  Notably, when we asked about this in March with Biden vs. Trump, this was the only topic in which people were more confident in a Biden presidency – but by a much narrower 2:1 ratio.

Also notably of the 10 topics we polled on in March and August, Harris is out-performing Biden on all 10, often by sizeable margins. Note: This polling was completed before her formal acceptance of the nomination during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

More insights from this wave of the Ipsos Consumer Tracker:

Pet ownership is more work and more costly than Americans anticipated

Here’s how people are spending their grocery dollars

The Ipsos Care-o-Meter: What does America know about vs. what does America care about?