With Harris in the race, 'double haters' are on the decline: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, national political correspondent Steve Kornacki breaks down how Vice President Kamala Harris' and former President Donald Trump's favorability ratings are improving. Plus, we preview tonight's primaries in battleground Arizona.

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With Harris in the race, ‘double haters’ are on the decline

By Steve Kornacki

Where have all the “double haters” gone?

It would be too much to say that either of them are popular, but both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are noticeably less unpopular since Harris’ emergence as the likely Democratic standard-bearer.

In three major polls released this past week, Trump recorded favorability ratings that are among the highest he’s ever attained. And Harris notched significant improvement from her own previous favorability ratings — and from the consistently dismal levels that President Joe Biden had been running at.

Trump’s 47% favorable mark represents the best he’s ever done in the current iteration of the Wall Street Journal poll, which was launched in late 2021. Forty-seven percent is also his new high-water mark for favorability in the New York Times/Siena poll. And while it doesn’t look like much, Trump’s 36% rating in the ABC News/Ipsos poll is actually the second-best he’s ever received in that survey dating to the 2020 campaign.

Trump’s new numbers also come after he survived an assassination attempt and was officially nominated at the Republican National