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CBS Poll: Voters Satisfied With, But Not As Enthusiastic About Kamala Harris

The survey found that most voters are unaware of the vice president’s work in the administration.

Kamala Harris’ vice presidency is likely to face scrutiny as the Biden/Harris team gears up for what’s expected to be a tight presidential race in 2024. Three years into her job, Harris scores high marks among Democrats who say they are now less enthusiastic about Harris compared to when President Biden selected her as his running mate.

The nation’s first woman and first person of color vice president has an overall 41 percent approval rating, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey published on Sep. 10. She is most highly regarded among Democrats who approve of her job performance at 78 percent, compared to Independents at 31 percent and Republicans at just 10 percent. Harris' job approval rating has tracked closely with Biden's throughout their term in office.

In August 2020, 58 percent of Democrats were “enthusiastic” about Harris. That figure has plummeted to just 30 percent today. But a higher percentage of Democrats are now “satisfied” with Harris at 54 percent, compared to 34 percent three years ago when Biden chose her as his running mate.

Interestingly, scores of voters have formed opinions of Harris even though most of them know very little about her work in the administration. According to the poll, only 11 percent of Democrats have heard “a lot” about Harris’ work, compared to 20 percent of Republicans who likely consume negative information about Harris from conservative media outlets.

In recent weeks, Harris has voiced the administration’s outrage on issues from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “revisionist history” about slavery to the Republicans’ war on abortion rights, as well as making high-profile appearances, including the NAACP annual conference in July.

Early in his presidency, Biden assigned Harris two difficult tasks: stem the migrant border crossing that previous administrations struggled to fix and guide voting rights legislation through Congress that faced strong opposition from Senate Republicans and conservative Democrat Joe Manchin.

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Harris has also faced questions about her management style and ability to serve as president after several top-level staffers left her office, including her former spokesperson Symone Sanders who was hired by MSNBC in 2022 to host a program on the network.

As the Biden/Harris team moves into campaign mode, the vice president is integral to their re-election bid. ABC News reported on Aug. 11 that a strategic memo from the campaign went out to donors, supporters and political strategists that defended the campaign's strategy of giving Harris a central role on the team, describing her as an “invaluable asset.”

"More important than any approval polling, however, is that the Vice President has established herself as a fearless voice on many of the issues that are most important to the core voters in the Biden-Harris coalition," the memo read.

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