NEW POLL: Democrats’ Enthusiasm Surges By Whopping 23 Points — Amid Kamala Harris Replacing Biden Atop Ticket
AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson
Americans’ enthusiasm about the November elections has surged recently, and a large part of that is being driven by Democrats, with nearly 8 in 10 saying they are “more enthusiastic than usual” about voting.
A Gallup poll conducted from Aug. 1-20 questioned a national sample of 1,015 adults by telephone (80% cell phone, 20% landlines), with the sample weighted for “national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cell phone-only/landline only/both and cell phone mostly).” The margin of error for the entire sample was +/- 4 percentage points.
The poll was taken after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, and mostly before the Democratic National Convention, where Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the party nominations, took place in Chicago from Aug. 19-22.
Gallup’s memo summarizing the poll noted that Americans’ overall enthusiasm for the election “has surged in recent months, with 69% of U.S. adults now saying they are ‘more enthusiastic than usual’ about voting,” a figure that was at 54% in Gallup’s previous survey in March.
The increase in enthusiasm was mostly due to a spike among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. In March, 55% of this group said they were “more enthusiastic than usual about voting;” this August poll had them at 78%. Comparatively, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents went from having “a slight edge in enthusiasm” in the March poll at 59% now were at 64%.
Image via Gallup.
The increased enthusiasm across the board, when combined with voters also saying they were paying more attention to the election than before, means that “voter participation could surpass what it was in 2020, when two-thirds of eligible U.S. adults cast ballots, the highest in over 100 years,” noted Gallup.
Read the polling memo here or download the full polling questions and crosstabs here.
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