Skeptical voters wrestle with what they know about Harris versus what they've seen from Trump

A new focus group of skeptical Hispanic voters reveals the potential limitations of Democratic enthusiasm breaking through with the remaining sliver of persuadable voters in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris’ rise to the top of their ticket.

Conversations with nine voters — who are primarily from presidential battleground states and say they’re unsatisfied with both major-party candidates — show a near-unanimous lack of familiarity with Harris. That’s bred a real skepticism about whether Harris means what she says in the campaign or whether the November election is a choice, as one voter put it, between the “devil we know” in former President Donald Trump and the “devil we don’t know” in Harris.

Yet that dynamic also gives Harris a potential opening, some participants noted, as a new voice in a race that was shaping up for a year-plus as a rematch between two of the most recognizable politicians in recent American history.

“It’s better a fool known than the fool unknown. Sorry, I’ve already been through Trump, I think I can handle him another four years. He’s not going to kill the whole nation in four years, he doesn’t have that power, and I just don’t know Harris well enough,” said Maddie C., a 52-year-old from Macon, Georgia, who also backed Trump in 2020.

But Andreas O., a 47-year-old from Durham, North Carolina, who backed President Joe Biden in 2020, said of Harris, “At the very least, she’s competent. I don’t have any doubts about her ability to run the government.”

The latest edition of the NBC News Deciders Focus Group, produced in collaboration with Syracuse University and the research firms Engagiousand Sago, makes clear the decision to swap Biden with Harris at the top of the ticket has