Vice President Kamala Harris is enjoying an unexpected lead among Republican voters

Recent surveys show that Vice President Kamala Harris is surprising herself with Republican supporters.

Numerous surveys indicate that as the 2024 presidential contest heats up, more Republicans are beginning to vote with Harris rather than former President Donald Trump.

This unexpected pattern has the potential to change the dynamics of the race and give Harris an advantage in crucial battleground states when the two contenders square off for the president.

In the most recent nationwide New York Times/Siena College survey, which was carried out from September 29 to October 6, 9 percent of Republicans surveyed said they intended to back Harris in the November election, an increase from 5 percent the previous month.

Similar trends were seen in the most recent Cygnal survey, which was conducted between October 2 and 3. Republicans who participated in the survey this month reported supporting the vice president at a rate of 9%, compared to 3% last month.

In the meanwhile, an Emerson College survey from September 29 to October 1 revealed that 7% of Republicans were switching to support Harris, up from 5% at the start of September.

On the other hand, surveys indicate that Democrats’ endorsement of Trump has dropped, from 6% in the previous Emerson College survey to 4% in the most current one. According to surveys by The New York Times and Siena College, Democrats’ support for the former president dropped from 4% to 3%.

Republicans have been won over by Harris because, according to Thomas Gift, head of the University College of London Center on US Politics, she has made a “concerted effort” to appeal to these voters in the swing states.

“To her credit, Harris has worked more than other Democrats in the past to wrest support from Republicans. For instance, the Harris team established 50 offices in Pennsylvania, mostly in more conservative, rural areas of the state, with the goal of winning over GOP supporters who are not very thrilled about Trump, Gift told Newsweek.

“As we saw in the primaries with Nikki Haley voters, there’s a nontrivial segment of the Republican electorate who consider themselves right-leaning but just can’t bring themselves to cast their ballot for Trump.”

Gift went on to say that Harris’s approach to the campaign has been different from that of her predecessor, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who, during the 2016 election, referred to Trump voters as a “basket of deplorables” during a fundraiser.

“Harris’s effort to reach across the aisle contrasts markedly with Hillary Clinton in 2016, who labeled many of these voters “deplorables” and de facto wrote off large swathes of the Republican electorate,” Gift added.

In the meanwhile, Mike Tappin, co-author of American Politics Today and an honorary fellow at Keele University, offered a different interpretation, telling Newsweek that the change may be attributed to the previous president’s lack of appeal to female voters.

Harris’s “stand on a woman’s right to an abortion has drawn many women voters to her cause and away from the Trump candidacy,” said Harris.

“Three Trump nominees and a Republican-led Supreme Court reversed the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which gave American women the right to an abortion under certain restrictions, in June 2022.

According to the Roe ruling, each state should make its own decisions,” Tappin said.

“Donald Trump’s opinions on this matter have been ambiguous. Numerous state governments controlled by Republicans are beginning to criminalize abortion for their constituents. In some areas, medical personnel who perform abortions may face charges of murder.

He went on: The last issue with this is that Trump’s supposed sexism and careless handling of women are seen as a reason why he is having trouble winning over female voters. E. Jean Carroll was given a total of $88.3 million in damages in January 2024 against Trump for alleged sexual assault and slander, a claim he refuted. Trump has filed an appeal of the ruling.

Women strongly favor Harris, according to polls; in the most recent New York Times/Siena College survey, 56% of female respondents said they would vote for Harris. A study conducted by Emerson College and released on Thursday indicates that Harris is the most popular choice among women in all swing states except Arizona. In the Grand Canyon State, half of the female participants declared their support for Trump, whilst 47% indicated their preference for Harris.

“With the November 5th election so close, how women who make up the largest proportion of the electorate vote will be critical in determining the result, especially in the “swing” states,” Tappin added.

Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman, supported Harris last month.
“I have given this a lot of consideration as a conservative who values and respects the Constitution. At Duke University, Cheney said, “And because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

A few days later, Dick Cheney, the former vice president and father of Cheney, said he would vote for Harris as well.

“In our nation’s 248 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our Republic than Donald Trump,” he said in a statement. “It is our collective responsibility as citizens to protect our Constitution by putting our nation above politics. For this reason, I will vote for Kamala Harris, the vice president.”

This month, Liz Cheney accompanied Harris at a campaign stop in Ripon, Wisconsin.
Trump earlier said that if he is elected president, women would be “happy” and “great again” in a Truth Social post.