CBS News’ Trump vs. Harris Poll: How Much Does Likeability – or Dislike – Matter for a Candidate?
Being perceived as likeable is more important to Kamala Harris that for Donald Trump.
When voters express positive opinions about a candidate’s behavior or personal traits, they overwhelmingly support him or her in equally large numbers.
But what about when they don’t like the candidates? The relationship between dislike and vote choice isn’t as strong, at least in Trump’s case.
When voters don’t like Harris, almost all of them don’t vote for her, but when they don’t like Trump, a significant share of them still support him.
Harris leads Trump in personal approval ratings, but about half of voters dislike the way she conducts herself personally. Only 5% of those who dislike her vote for her.
But among the nearly two-thirds of voters who dislike Trump personally, 21% are voting for him, four times the number of voters who dislike Harris personally but support her.
This is true for both men and women who dislike the way the candidates behave personally. The percentages of men and women who say they dislike Harris and support her are roughly equal and still lower than the percentages of men and women who dislike Trump and support him.
This trend extends to another characteristic. Most voters say they find Trump insulting when he speaks, but more than a quarter of them still support him. Among voters who think Harris is insulting, she receives only single-digit support.
(Overall, more voters find Harris reasonable and intelligent when she speaks than Trump. She has a slight edge, to be clear.)
We’ve seen this phenomenon play out over the years: some voters overlook certain personal traits and behaviors in Trump. That’s part of what keeps this trend going. presidential race competitive.
To support this finding, we find that while Harris and Trump voters place a lot of importance on a candidate’s performance, policiesFar fewer Trump voters say a candidate’s personal qualities are very important to them. And even fewer Trump voters who say they dislike him prioritize personal qualities.
Most voters who don’t like the way Trump is behaving but still support him also voted for Trump in 2020, so in a way, they know what to expect. Most of his current supporters (and most voters in general) think that Trump is the same in what he says and does as he was when he was president.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 3,129 registered voters surveyed between September 18 and September 20, 2024. The sample was weighted by gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as past voting. Respondents were selected to be representative of registered voters nationally. The margin of error for registered voters is ±2.2 percentage points. The battleground states are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
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