Polls suggest Kamala Harris is winning over Republicans from Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris is making unexpected gains among Republican voters, according to recent polls.

As the 2024 presidential campaign intensifies, multiple polls suggest a growing number of Republicans are shifting their support from former President Donald Trump to Harris. This surprising trend could change the electoral dynamics and give Harris a potential advantage in key battleground states as both candidates vie for the presidency.

According to the latest national New York TimesIn a Siena College poll conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, 9 percent of Republicans surveyed said they planned to support Harris in the November election, up from 5 percent last month.

The latest A Cygnal poll conducted between October 2 and 3 showed a similar trend. Nine percent of Republicans surveyed this month said that They support the vice president, up from 3 percent last month.

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by Emerson College between September 29 and October 1 found that 7 percent of Republicans are voting for Harris, up from 5 percent in early September.

In contrast, polls show Trump's support among Democrats has fallen from 6 percent in the previous Emerson College poll to 4 percent in the most recent one. The former president also found a decline in Democratic support in Democratic polls The New York Times and Siena College, from 4 percent to 3 percent.

Newsweek emailed the Harris and Trump campaigns seeking comment.

Harris won over Republicans because she made a “concerted effort” to appeal to such voters in swing states, said Thomas Gift, director of the University College of London Center on US Politics.

“To her credit, Harris has made more concerted efforts to shake off Republican support than some Democrats have in the past. In Pennsylvania, for example, the Harris team has opened 50 headquarters, mostly in more rural, conservative parts of the state, “aimed at gaining traction with GOP voters who are not enthusiastic about Trump,” Gift said Newsweek.

“As we saw in the primaries with Nikki Haley voters, there is a non-trivial segment of the Republican electorate that considers itself right-leaning but simply cannot bring itself to vote for Trump.”

Gift added that Harris' campaign strategy differed from that of her predecessor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables” at a fundraiser during the 2016 campaign.

“Harris' effort to assert himself stands in stark contrast to Hillary Clinton in 2016, who described many of these voters as 'deplorables' and effectively wrote off large swaths of the Republican electorate,” Gift said.

Meanwhile, Mike Tappin, an honorary fellow at Keele University and co-author of American Politics Today, had another insightful explanation Newsweek that the former president's lack of appeal to female voters could explain the change.

Harris' “advocacy for a woman's right to an abortion has turned many voters to her cause and away from the Trump candidacy,” he said.

“In June 2022, the Republican and very conservative Supreme Court with three Trump appointees struck down the law Roe v. Wade Decision (of) 1973 that gave women in America the right to abortion under certain conditions. The roe The decision said it was up to the individual states to decide,” Tappin said.

“Donald Trump has expressed equivocal views on this issue. Many Republican-dominated state governments are beginning to criminalize abortion for their citizens, and in some states, medical personnel who perform an abortion could be charged with murder.”

He continued: “The final related issue is that Trump supposedly has a problem with female voters, namely his alleged misogyny and his condescending treatment of women.” In January 2024, E. Jean Carroll was awarded damages in the amount of A total of $88.3 million was awarded against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, an accusation he denied. Trump has appealed the decision.

Surveys have shown that they are predominantly women Support Harris, with 56 percent of female voters recently supporting Harris New York Times/Siena College Survey. Meanwhile, a poll released Thursday by Emerson College showed Harris leading among women in all swing states except Arizona. In the Grand Canyon State, 50 percent of female respondents said they supported Trump, while 47 percent supported Harris.

“With the Nov. 5 election so close, how women make up the largest share of voters, particularly in swing states, will be critical to the outcome,” Tappin said.

Last month, former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney endorsed Harris.

“As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought about this deeply. And because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only will I not vote for Donald Trump, but I will vote for Kamala Harris,” Cheney said at Duke University.

Days later, Cheney's father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, said he also planned to vote for Harris.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been a person who has posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” he said in a statement. “As citizens, we all have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution. That’s why I will be casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Liz Cheney joined Harris on the campaign trail at an event in Ripon, Wisconsin, this month.

Trump previously said in a Truth Social post that women would be “happy” and “great again” if he wins the presidency.