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Harris v. Trump CBS News poll: Ahead of debate, here’s what voters are saying about the candidates
Here’s how voters in the 2024 battlegrounds of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin view Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump ahead of their first presidential debate.
Many voters say they don’t know what Harris stands for
Harris’ stances are less known than Trump’s. Roughly four in 10 voters in these battleground states say they don’t know what Harris stands for. Some of this is driven by Republicans — most of whom say they don’t know where she stands. But many independents hold this view too – a key voting group that is less firm in their candidate support, and not particularly excited about what they’ve seen from either of the campaigns recently.
More voters feel like they know where third-time Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump stands, whether they agree with him or not.
The debate is an opportunity for Harris to reintroduce herself and explain to voters how she will approach the issues they care about.
Likability: Advantage Harris – or is it?
More voters like how Kamala Harris handles herself personally than they do Donald Trump, and most of those who like them are voting for them.
But likability may not matter that much to some voters: A quarter of those who dislike Trump are voting for him anyway. This is not entirely new for Donald Trump. As we’ve seen over the years, a share of his supporters have overlooked some of Trump’s behavior they don’t particularly like.
This is less the case for Harris. The percentage of voters who dislike how she handles herself personally and are still voting for her is in the low single digits.
Who is the “change” candidate?
Harris and Trump are each trying to brand themselves as the “change candidate”, but in these battlegrounds, far more voters think it’s Trump who will bring “a lot” of change to the country if elected.
Throughout his presidency, President Biden has received low marks for handling key issues. Right now, Harris’ policies and views are seen as mostly – but not entirely – the same as President Biden’s, perhaps giving Harris an opportunity to distinguish herself in some way from him.
The issues: Will the debate change the candidate’s advantages and disadvantages?
While some things have changed with Harris now at the top of the Democratic ticket, some things have remained the same: Trump leads Harris — just like he did President Biden — among voters who say the economy and inflation are major factors in their vote – the top concerns for voters. We know from some of our earlier polling that when voters look back, more say the national economy under Trump was “good” than view it that way today.
On the U.S.-Mexico border, Republicans, in particular, say it is a major factor in their vote, and Trump leads on that issue, as he long has.
On the other hand: The issues of abortion and democracy are advantages for Harris. The abortion issue kept Democrats competitive in the 2022 midterms and it’s helping boost Harris today. She leads Trump by a wide margin among those who say abortion is a major factor in their vote.
And the state of democracy is an issue that Democrats in particular have emphasized, and here too, Harris bests Trump among those who place a great deal of importance on it.
The debate will give the candidates a chance to persuade voters they are the person who would better handle these key issues, perhaps changing some of the perceptions voters have of the candidates as it relates to these issues.
Fred Backus contributed to this report.
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These CBS News/YouGov surveys were conducted between September 3-6, 2024. They are based on representative samples of 1,086 registered voters in Michigan, 1,085 in Pennsylvania, and 958 in Wisconsin. Margins of error for registered voters: Michigan +/- 3.7 points, Pennsylvania +/- 3.5 points, and Wisconsin +/- 4.0 points.
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
