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What Democrats’ excitement for Harris means and what it doesn’t — CBS News poll analysis
- More Democrats now say this election is about hope about what might happen, rather than fear.
- Democrats are excited about Kamala Harris, but she trails GOP nominee Donald Trump on some key issues among the electorate overall.
As Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to accept her party’s nomination for president, most Democrats are excited about her, and since she first became the presumptive nominee, more of them have said they’ll definitely vote.
With this excitement, there’s also a more optimistic outlook. We’ve been asking whether in general voters see this election as more about hope for what could happen or fear for what might happen. For Democrats, hope now eclipses fear.
While Democrats may be excited and strongly backing Harris, she still faces some of the same deficits with the broader electorate that President Biden did. Harris runs behind former President Donald Trump on some key issues in this election, like the economy.
Harris may take the opportunity to re-introduce herself to the country — a third of voters say they don’t yet know what she stands for — and try to convince voters she would handle the issues that matter to them better than Trump.
Democrats excited about Harris
Two-thirds of Democrats are excited about Harris as the Democratic nominee, with majorities of Democratic men and women and both liberal and moderate Democrats feeling excited (although excitement is higher among liberals). Nearly all Democrats are at least satisfied with Harris as their nominee.
Along with excitement for Harris, as we reported on Sunday Democrats have continued to close the gap with Republicans in expressing their intention to definitely vote. They now are effectively even with Republicans in saying so.
And Democrats are thinking about this election differently now — feeling more hopeful than fearful about what might happen. The percentage of Democrats who say the election is about hope has risen 17 points since the spring and now outnumbers those who say it’s about fear.
What does Harris need to do?
Harris may have made this a closer race with Trump, but some factors in the race remain the same.
The economy and inflation are top issues for voters, and Harris trails Trump among those who say these issues are major factors in their vote, just as Mr. Biden did. And Trump leads Harris by an even greater margin among those who say the U.S.-Mexico border is a major factor for them.
Harris does maintain advantages on other issues like abortion, the state of democracy and issues of race and diversity.
Many voters don’t know where Harris stands
While most Democrats feel they know where Harris stands, many voters are still learning about her. A third of voters overall say they don’t know what she stands for, a number that rises to 44% among independents, a group she will try to persuade to back the Harris-Walz ticket.
This analysis is based on a CBS News/YouGov survey conducted with a representative sample of 3,258 registered voters nationwide interviewed between August 14-16, 2024. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as past vote. Respondents were selected to be representative of registered voters nationwide. The margin of error for registered voters is ±2.1 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.
