Americans view Harris as more honest than Trump, but trust her less on economy, immigration: poll

A new poll has found that American adults view Vice President Kamala Harris as a more honest person than former President Trump, but are less likely to trust her when it comes to handling key issues such as the economy and immigration. 

The AP-NORC survey of 1,164 adults revealed that around 4 in 10 say ‘honest’ better describes Harris, compared to 24% for Trump. About 4 in 10 respondents also say Harris is someone who ‘cares about people like you,’ compared to around 3 in 10 saying that about Trump. 

Yet when it comes to the economy, 45% of those surveyed said they believe Trump is more likely to do a better job handling it, compared to 38% for Harris, according to The Associated Press. A similar difference was reported on the topic of immigration, while independent voters are nearly twice as likely to trust Trump over Harris on handling economic issues. 

Harris has more of an advantage over Trump when it comes to handling issues related to race and racial inequality, abortion policy, and health care.  

Roughly half of U.S. adults say Harris would do a better job than Trump handling each of those issues, compared with about 3 in 10 for Trump. Harris is especially strong among Democrats, independents and women on the issue of abortion policy. 

About two-thirds of Democrats also say they are ‘excited,’ describing either extremely well or very well how they would feel if Harris were to be elected. 

The enthusiasm represents a sharp reversal from when Biden was the Democrats’ candidate: an AP-NORC poll from March found that only 4 in 10 Democrats said ‘excited’ would describe their feelings extremely or very well if he won another term. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.