Kamala Harris has received “brutal” responses from multiple voter focus groups, spelling doom for the Democrat vice president ahead of the critical November election.
According to a report in The Los Angeles Times, several voter focus groups in Arizona have weighed in on VP Harris and their responses reinforced the notion that she’s an extremely unpopular candidate.
The political group “Republican Voters Against Trump” invited the outlet to view videos of interviews with three different voter focus groups.
The focus groups were interviewed just days after Harris spoke in Arizona on April 12.
One group was made up of former Trump 2016 voters who voted for Biden in 2020.
Another group was black voters who are disappointed with Biden.
One focus group was described as “California Democrats.”
The Times reported the crossover voters’ views, stating: “Their assessments were brutal.”
Accoridn to the report, their responses about Harris included:
- “If she is helping Biden, you don’t see it.”
- “She rubs me the wrong way.”
- “She was picked because she is a demographic.”
- “The big things she had, she failed.”
Gunner Ramer, the political director of Republican Voters Against Trump, summed up the views to the Times.
“Swing voters don’t like her,” Ramer said.
The other two groups, while less antagonistic towards Harris, were not complimentary of her either.
The report noted:
“In a focus group of black voters who were disappointed with Biden, none raised their hand in support of Harris, with one participant calling her ‘the bad news bear.’
“A focus group of California Democrats, while they liked Harris, had to be prompted to discuss her and said she needed more influence and exposure.”
These views of Harris are not surprising, however.
Harris is even less popular than Biden, a historically unpopular president.
According to USA Today and Suffolk University polling from last month, around 52% of registered voters disapprove of Harris’s performance as vice president.
Additionally, just 36% of those surveyed say she is handling the job well.
10% said they were undecided.
In USA Today’s report, Suffolk University Political Research Center Director David Paleologos claimed that Harris’s unpopularity will be a big talking point during this election.
“Usually, it’s a secondary and muted discussion about vice presidents,” he said.
“This time, it’s going to be almost a parallel and loud discussion in comparison.”
The L.A. Times described how “Harris has heard the criticism since she entered the White House.”
The outlet adds that Harris has “stepped up her appearances with core Democratic groups” in response.
This campaign cycle, the vice president has leaned into championing abortion rights.
Late last year, she kicked off her Fight for Our Reproductive Freedoms Tour.
The campaign saw Harris touring the nation to galvanize Biden voters over the issue of “reproductive freedom.”
The L.A. Times noted that Harris’s allies “believe her role as the administration’s leading voice on abortion rights will boost her and the Democratic ticket on an issue that helped carry the party to unexpected success in the 2022 midterm elections.”
However, the outlet noted that the focus group voters didn’t notice that Harris spoke out in Tucson earlier this month in response to the state Supreme Court upholding an 1864 abortion ban.
“Several voters said in interviews in Phoenix on Monday that they were not aware Harris was in their state just a few days ago, underscoring the challenge of getting attention as a vice president in an era of information overload,” the report added.
During one of the focus group interviews, black Democrat voter Tracey Sayles said, “If she is coming for us, she doesn’t show it.”
Other voters ripped Harris as well.
Retired military member Jeff Garland, who voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, declared:
“But from what I have seen of her, she doesn’t look like someone I want running my country.”
Nevertheless, the Biden-Harris campaign views it differently.
Campaign communications director Brian Fallon told the outlet that the vice president “has proven to be a highly effective messenger on issues from reproductive freedom to gun violence prevention.”
Fallon insists Harris is “uniquely positioned to mobilize critical groups across the Biden-Harris coalition, including both progressives and independents.”
It is unclear which actions by Harris he was referencing, however.
