Most supporters of both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris say they’ve thought a lot about the candidates this year and say the outcome of the race really matters. As in other recent elections, the two coalitions are roughly equally engaged and interested.
And satisfaction with the field is much higher than it was a few months ago – as Harris’ backers are now much more likely to say they are satisfied than President Joe Biden’s supporters were in July.
Nearly two-thirds of voters (64%) say they have given a lot of thought to the candidates who are running in the 2024 presidential election.
As was the case in 2020, supporters of the two candidates are about equally likely to say they have given a lot of thought to the candidates running for president. Today, 63% of Harris supporters and 66% of Trump supporters say this.
About three-quarters of voters (76%) say it really matters who wins the election. This is on par with voters’ views about the 2020 election in both August (76%) and October (78%) of that year.
Similar shares of Harris (76%) and Trump (77%) supporters say it really matters who wins the 2024 election.
Throughout the late summer and fall of both 2016 and 2020, supporters of the two major party candidates were also about equally likely to say the outcome really mattered. For example, 78% of Biden supporters and 76% of Trump supporters said in early August 2020 that it really mattered who won that presidential election. And in September 2016, roughly three-quarters of both Clinton and Trump backers said that year’s election outcome really mattered.
Satisfaction with the candidates
Overall voter satisfaction with the presidential candidates is substantially higher than it was two months ago, and this shift is mostly a result of Harris supporters being nearly three times more likely to say they are satisfied with the candidates than Biden supporters were in July.
About half of registered voters (48%) now say they are very or fairly satisfied with the presidential candidates this year, while a similar share (51%) say they are not satisfied with the candidates. Satisfaction is now 17 percentage points higher than it was in July.
About half of Harris supporters (52%) say they are satisfied with the presidential candidates, while a smaller share of Trump supporters (45%) say the same.
In July – before Biden dropped out of the race – Trump supporters were much more likely than Biden supporters to say they were satisfied with the candidates (51% vs. 18%).
Harris supporters are now also more likely to say they are satisfied with the candidates than Biden supporters were at a similar point in 2020 (52% vs. 41%).
By contrast, current Trump supporters (45%) are less likely than those who supported Trump in 2020 (53%) to say they are satisfied with the candidates running for president.
Views of the values and goals of the other candidate’s supporters
When asked to think about the “ordinary Americans” who support the other candidate, overwhelming shares of both Trump and Harris supporters say that they not only have different views on politics and policies, but also that these disagreements extend to “core American values and goals.”
Three-quarters of Harris supporters – and about eight-in-ten Trump supporters (81%) – say they fundamentally disagree with the other group about the nation’s core values.
By contrast, 24% of Harris supporters and 18% of Trump supporterssay that they “share a fundamental commitment to the same core American values and goals” with those who back the other candidate, despite their different political and policy priorities.
Harris supporters are now somewhat more likely than Biden supporters were in 2020 to see a shared fundamental commitment to the same core American values and goals as Trump supporters (24% now vs. 18% then).
By contrast, Trump supporters today (18%) are slightly less likely than Trump supporters four years ago (22%) to say their differences with the Democratic candidate’s supporters are limited to political and policy priorities.
