Harris’ approval rating tracks with Biden’s – CBS News poll

Americans appear to be gauging President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris still very much as a ticket one year into their term: Americans give Vice-President Kamala Harris an approval rating that is the same as Mr. Biden’s, at 44%, and their approval ratings track very much the same across various groups, including among Democrats. People tend to approve or disapprove of them in tandem. 

As the first woman to become vice president, Harris gets approval from eight in 10 Democratic women, the same as Mr. Biden’s numbers, and there’s no statistical difference between them among women nationally overall. 

Eight in 10 Democrats approve of each. 

Although some observers felt Harris and Mr. Biden might have different appeal across parts of the Democratic coalition, in fact, approval tracks comparably across many groups. Today, she and Mr. Biden get essentially the same ratings from liberals and self-described very liberal Democrats. They get similar approval today from Black Americans, Black Democrats in particular, and from independents. The patterns are also found among Americans as a whole, with people either approving or disapproving of them both. 

In that vein, though, it is notable that both Harris and Mr. Biden get net disapproval from young people under 30; in 2020 the ticket won young voters.

Democrats do see Harris as a net-positive on their views of the administration: by more than four-to-one, Democrats say the job she is doing makes them think better of the administration overall rather than worse, though many say it does not matter to their views of the administration either way. 

Nor is there any particular issue that differentiates her approval from Mr. Biden’s: those who prioritize the economy or coronavirus, for instance, approve of Harris and Mr. Biden much the same way.

Each only draws approval of a third of independents. For the independents who do approve of Mr. Biden, and those who voted for the ticket, they also see her as a net-positive for the administration, but independents overall are negative on both her performance and its impact, and that’s similar to the patterns for Americans overall. Republicans are starkly negative on both Mr. Biden’s and Harris’ approval and her impact on the administration.

As CBS News’ Tim Perry reports: Harris was tapped to head the administration’s efforts on two high profile issues, voting rights and stemming the flow of migration at the southern border. Most Democrats do think passing a voting rights bill is important though that appears unlikely to succeed, in part due to the filibuster. And, meanwhile, President Biden’s approval for handling immigration is just 36%. Harris did see internal challenges during her first year in office, including reports about a string of staff departures towards the end of the year, including top communications officials. But these items have apparently not done anything to differentiate her approval ratings from those of Mr. Biden.

This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,094 U.S. adult residents interviewed between January 12-14, 2022. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as to 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.

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