Fox News Poll: Voters think Harris did better than Trump in debate

It’s been over a week since Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump squared off in the second presidential debate of the cycle (Harris’ first), and while voters aren’t thrilled with either individual’s performance, they think Harris performed better. 

That’s according to the latest Fox News Poll released Thursday.

Using a letter grade scale, on average voters give Harris a C for her performance, while they give Trump a C-.  

FOX NEWS POLL: HARRIS TOPS TRUMP BY TWO POINTS

However, the details are in the individual letter grades. By a 12-point margin, voters are more likely to give Harris an A (30%) than Trump (18%). Meanwhile, by 12 points, voters are more likely to give Trump a failing grade (36%) than they are Harris (24%).

Among the partisans, on average, Democrats give Harris a B+, while Independents award her a C, and Republicans rate her a D.

For Trump, Republicans give him a B average, Independents a D+, and Democrats…a resounding F.

At the first presidential debate in June, Trump got an overall C average. He held steady with Republicans (B average in June) while he faltered with Independents (C-) and Democrats (D).

FOX NEWS POLL: HARRIS CLOSES GAP WITH TRUMP IN SUN BELT STATES

Still, both candidates performed better than President Joe Biden did in the June debate, which subsequently led to calls for him to step down as the nominee. At that time, on average, voters gave Biden a D for his performance, with 46% giving him an F.  

Democrats gave him a C- average, Independents a D, while Republicans failed him completely.

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"Contrary to the commentary that threw rose petals at the vice-president’s feet, voters weren’t terribly impressed with either candidate," says Daron Shaw, the GOP half of the bipartisan team who conducted the Fox News survey. "But only hardcore GOP partisans thought the former president got the job done this time around."

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Conducted September 13-16, 2024 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 1,102 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (128) and cellphones (699) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (275). Results based on both the full registered voter sample and the subsample of 876 likely voters have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error associated with results among subgroup is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.