Kamala Harris hurt by poll of white voters

Half of white voters don’t believe Kamala Harris is qualified to be president, according to a new poll.

The poll, conducted by The Economist and YouGov between July 27 and 30, shows that 50 percent of white voters said they believe Harris is “not qualified to be president,” compared with 9 percent of Black voters and 41 percent of Hispanic voters.

Before becoming vice president, Harris served as a senator from California after serving as the state’s attorney general.

Among white voters, 41 percent said they think Harris is qualified to be president, while 9 percent said they are unsure. Seventeen percent of Hispanic and Black voters also said they were unsure, while 42 percent and 72 percent, respectively, said they think she is qualified.

Meanwhile, 46 percent of white voters said they disapprove of Harris becoming the Democratic nominee. Among them, 38 percent said they strongly disapprove, while 7 percent said they somewhat disapprove.

Harris did better among Black and Hispanic voters: 8 percent and 40 percent, respectively, said they disapprove, while 77 percent of Black voters and 48 percent of Hispanic voters said they approve.

The poll also found that more than a third of white voters think the process by which Harris became the Democratic nominee was unfair, with 38 percent of white voters saying yes. However, 39 percent said they feel the process was fair, while 23 percent were unsure.

That compares with 9 percent of black voters who said the process was unfair and 25 percent of Hispanic voters.

The poll surveyed 1,610 adult U.S. citizens and had a margin of error of 3.3 percent.

Newsweek Magazine has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment via email.

According to the Pew Research Center, white voters are far more likely to affiliate with the Republican Party than those in other racial and ethnic groups. In the 2020 election, 58 percent of white voters voted for former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for 2024, while 41 percent voted for Joe Biden.

In 2016, 57 percent of white voters chose Trump, compared to 37 percent for Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Since Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, some white voters have come out in support of her, with more than 180,000 people showing up for a “White Dudes for Harris” Zoom call this week. The group has raised $4 million for Harris’s campaign, according to organizers.

Among the guests were several of the white men Harris is considering for her vice presidential running mate, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced he was withdrawing from consideration moments before the call began.

“The vibes are incredible,” Buttigieg said.

The group’s organizer, Mark Greene, an author who writes about masculinity, said in the event description that the group aims to support Harris’ candidacy, in opposition to the Republican Party, which he says represents a culture that “has positioned white men at the top of a culture of masculinity based on intimidation and rigid dominance.”

The call with “white guys” followed similar calls targeting Black and white women in recent weeks. More than 160,000 people joined a Zoom call Thursday night for white women supporting Harris.