How Kamala Harris can beat Donald Trump

CNN —

Kamala Harris seems to have more appeal among voters of color and younger voters than Joe Biden did before he got out of the presidential race. Still, the 2020 results show that Harris can make up even more ground with these groups in her expected matchup against Donald Trump.

Take a look at our newly published CNN/SSRS poll. Harris leads Trump among Black voters 78% to 15%. Among these same voters (the poll recontacted the same respondents), Biden was ahead by a smaller 70% to 23% in CNN polling data from April and June.

The same holds to a somewhat lesser degree among Hispanic voters. Harris comes in at 47% to Trump’s 45%, while it was 50% for Trump to 41% for Biden among these same respondents in the April and June data.

Voters under the age of 35 demonstrate a similar shift. It’s Harris 47% to Trump’s 43% now. In April and June, these same voters put Trump up 49% to 42% over Biden.

In some ways, none of these shifts are very surprising. Biden was doing the worst for a Democrat this century among all these traditionally Democratic-leaning groups. In fact, his performance among Hispanic and Black voters was the worst for a Democrat in over 50 years.

Harris probably had nowhere to go but up with these segments of the electorate.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, on July 23, 2024.

Related article CNN Poll: Harris improves on Biden’s performance against Trump in early look at new matchup

Despite the improvement, the results should leave much to be desired for Harris. She is doing at least 5 points worse than Biden did among these same groups in the final 2020 polls.

Among Black voters, Biden led Trump 84% to 9% at the end of the 2020 campaign. Even