A majority of likely voters have an unfavorable impression of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday.
Republican voters especially are doubtful Harris is qualified to be president.
Only 25% of GOP voters believe Harris is qualified to become president, compared to 80% of Democrats and 36% of unaffiliated voters.
Of likely voters overall, 51% have an unfavorable impression of Harris, with 43% having a very unfavorable impression of the vice president.
Not only that, 50% said Harris is not qualified to become president, including 41% who said she is not at all qualified.
The survey found that 46% of likely voters have a favorable impression of Harris, including 28% who have a very favorable view of her.
Female voters (48%) only have a slightly more favorable view of Harris than men (44%), but women (32%) are more likely than men (24%) to say they have a very favorable impression of Harris.
The vice president received high favorable ratings among voters under 40 (64%), Black voters (62%) and voters earning more than $200,000 per year (54%).
She was viewed unfavorably by voters 65 and older (55%), white voters (42%) and a majority of middle-income voters.
It was no surprise President Joe Biden’s strongest supporters expressed the highest opinion of Harris. Among voters who strongly approve of Biden’s job performance as president, 94% have a favorable impression of Harris.
By contrast, among voters who strongly disapprove of Biden’s performance, 96% have an unfavorable impression of her.
Rasmussen said Harris' ratings were lower than former Vice President Mike Pence’s numbers four years earlier. In April 2017, 63% of voters said Pence was qualified to become president, including 86% of Republicans, 40% of Democrats and 65% of unaffiliated voters.
The Rasmussen survey questions were:
- Do you have a very favorable, somewhat favorable, somewhat unfavorable or very unfavorable impression of Kamala Harris?
- In the Biden administration, will Kamala Harris play as important a role as Mike Pence played in the Trump administration?
- How qualified is Kamala Harris to assume the responsibilities of the presidency?
The survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters was conducted April 19-20 with a 95 percent level of confidence. It had a margin of error of plus-minus 3 percentage points.
Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate from California in 2016. Before that, she was the state’s attorney general.
In late March, Biden appointed Harris to lead the effort to stem a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The vice president has been criticized by Republicans for not visiting the border to view the crisis firsthand.