Kamala Harris would lose badly to Trump in 2024 but fare better than Pete Buttigieg, poll says
If the 2024 presidential election is between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the former president will win handily, a new poll projects.
The Harvard/HarrisX poll, conducted among 1,989 respondents between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2, found that in a hypothetical Trump-Harris matchup, Trump receives 50% support, Harris receives 41% support and 9% are unsure. Trump would win the Electoral College in a landslide with that margin.
While the poll finds that Harris struggles against Trump, it found that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who would reportedly consider challenging Harris in a 2024 Democratic presidential primary if President Joe Biden does not seek re-election, fares even worse.
In a Trump-Buttigieg matchup, the former president receives 48% support, Buttigieg receives 37% and 15% are unsure, an 11 percentage point margin of victory. The poll also found that in a Biden-Trump 2024 race, Trump receives 48% support, Biden receives 45% support and 8% are unsure.
All of the Democratic candidates likely fare poorly at this moment given Biden's sagging approval ratings amid inflation and ongoing supply chain issues.
The poll is actually a really good one for Harris in a hypothetical 2024 Democratic primary without Biden, as it shows her comfortably leading the field — which also includes Buttigieg, Sens. Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez among others — with 31% support. Sanders, who will be 82 at the time of the primaries and is seemingly unlikely to run a third time, received 15% support, and Buttigieg received 8% support.
